US tennis star Venus Williams faces a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of a man who died in a Florida car crash involving her, a lawyer said on Friday.
The 78-year-old man suffered “massive” fatal injuries from the 9 June collision in Palm Beach Gardens city, an attorney for his widow says.
According to police, Williams was at fault for the traffic accident, which caused the death of Jerome Barson.
The 37-year-old is due to make her 20th appearance at Wimbledon on Monday.
According to the police report, Linda Barson told police she was driving with her husband, Jerome, in the passenger seat of their 2016 Hyundai Accent at the time of the collision.
Barson told police that as they passed through an intersection on a green light, Williams’ 2010 Toyota Sequoia cut across in front of their car.
Williams told police she became stuck in the middle of the intersection because of other traffic, according to the report.
“Mrs Barson is suffering intense grief and doesn’t know how she will go on,” her lawyer, Michael Steinger, told ABC television’s Good Morning America.
“Her husband of 35 years was struck by Venus Williams, who was at fault in a car accident, which ultimately resulted in Mr Barson being hospitalised 14 days with multiple surgeries which resulted in his death.”
The lawsuit, filed by the couple’s daughter, Audrey Gassner-Dunayer, asserts that her father’s injuries included “severed main arteries, massive internal bleeding, a fractured spine, and massive internal organ damage”.
