A jury in western Iowa Wednesday awarded nearly $200,000 in damages to a Montgomery County couple injured in a crash in 2003. The case involving Stanton residents Venice Marlene Kennon and Richard Kennon stems from an incident that occurred August 30th 2003, on Interstate 94, near Racine, Wisconsin.
The couple was traveling southbound on the interstate from Milwaukee to Chicago following a trip to the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary celebration, when the 2003 Honda 1800 Goldwing conversion trike they were riding suddenly veered left and smashed into a concrete wall. Marlene Kennon was thrown off the cycle and suffered severe head and hand trauma.
Richard Kennon suffered non-life threatening injuries to his right leg. During the crash investigation, it was discovered a yoke that joined the trike’s driveshaft to the Honda transmission output shaft had apparently fallen-off before the vehicle hit the dividing wall. The Kennons sued the maker of the trike kit, Motor Trike, Incorporated of Troupe Texas, alleging MTI was negligent in the design and manufacturing of the kit, which was assembled at the company’s authorized agent in Mapleton.
They claimed the company was also negligent by not providing instructions to the dealers, stressing the importance of some construction details. The jury awarded Marlene Kennon a little more than $194,000, and her husband four-thousand dollars. There has been no word on whether Motor Trike will appeal the decision.