Boy struck by motorcycle at restaurant wins lawsuit

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — A Trumbull County jury has awarded $150,000 to a Warren boy who suffered a broken leg when a motorcyclist participating in a motorcycle rodeo lost control and crashed into him in 2005.

Nicolas J. Hackenson was 8 when the injury occurred in the parking lot of The Powerhouse Bar Grill, 999 Mahoning Ave., on July 4, 2005.

The jury found the motorcyclist, the restaurant and the boy’s grandmother all negligent in the accident. The boy had gone to the business to eat with his grandmother and was helping with the rodeo when the motorcycle struck him.

The jury found the bar 45 percent responsible for the accident, motoryclist Robert D. Simmons of Willow Drive Southwest, Warren, 35 percent responsible, and the boy’s grandmother Ruth Hackenson of Warren 20 percent responsible.

The grandmother was considered negligent for failing to properly supervise the boy, the jury ruled.

The boy and his father, Edward Hackenson of Melrose Court, Warren, filed the suit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in 2006. The trial started Monday in the courtroom of Judge Peter Kontos; the jury issued its verdict Friday.