It’s plain to see that tennis superstar Venus Williams is heavily affected by an unfortunate incident from the previous month, where she was involved in an automobile collision that ended up killing an elderly man and sending his wife to the hospital. It has not helped at all that the police investigation is holding her responsible for the accident taking place.
Despite the good fortune of winning her first match in Wimbledon days ago, the mention of this ongoing case is a serious damper on any desire by the elder Williams sister to celebrate. A recent development in the investigation has also spurred her to have a Court Order issued against the family of the late Jerome Barson.
Data download
Upon learning that the family of Jerome Barson was calling for an examination of both vehicles involved in the crash and their navigation computers’ data, the former tennis World Number One petitioned the court hearing the case to file an emergency court order stopping it. The 78-year-old Barson and his wife Linda were injured when their car collided with Venus Williams’ SUV last June 9 in Florida.
Jerome died two weeks later on the 22nd. Barson family lawyer Michael Steinger has proposed examining the data from his client’s 2016 Hyundai Accent’s and Williams’ 2010 Toyota Sequoia’s dashboard navigators, which would require downloading from both vehicle devices.
In obtaining the court order halting the examination, Venus’ attorney Kevin Yombor argued that the planned download by Steinger runs the risk of failing, with the permanent loss of the data as a result.
As an alternative, he is asking the presiding judge’s approval for the formation of a joint inspection committee from both sides of the case to carry out the inspection of the crashed cars. Both the Sequoia SUV and the Accent subcompact are being held in a tow yard of West Palm Beach.
Feeling devastation
Venus Williams’ request for a court order on Jerome Barson’s widow and counsel was signed off on Wednesday, July 5 according to court reports.
In addition, a hearing is being scheduled for both sides to attend at 2:30 in the afternoon of Thursday, July 6.
The tennis superstar, who has a Palm Beach Springs residence close to the accident site, insists that he had crossed the intersection on a green light. She had merely slowed down on account of traffic flow and was thus in the central portion when the Barsons’ car struck hers on the side. No tickets or traffic violations were issued by responding police against Williams at the time of the incident, which she described on her Facebook as leaving her “devastated.”
