Did 'freaky fast' advertising claim spur Jimmy John's accident settlement?
Advertisements about “freaky fast” delivery of Jimmy John’s sandwiches clearly didn’t help and may have hurt the restaurant chain during a trial of a Las Vegas lawsuit over a collision with a delivery driver.
Motorcyclist Ty Cirillo sued a Las Vegas franchise and the Illinois-based corporation after he crashed into a delivery driver who cut him off while making a left turn in 2011. On Monday, after three weeks of trial, the franchise settled the suit for an undisclosed amount, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
Cirillo, who now uses a wheelchair and is unable to walk, was represented by attorney Robert Eglet. The lawyer said he was going to ask the Clark County jury for $50 million in damages at the trial’s conclusion.
Eglet was allowed to present evidence, including Jimmy John’s commercials, at trial.
In one, a driver used the OnStar service after an accident to call for help and then order a sandwich, the newspaper reports. A Jimmy John’s driver arrives immediately, but says “Sorry I’m late. I got stuck behind an ambulance.”
The delivery driver, Larry Black, testified that he had turned left at the intersection where the crash with Cirillo occurred thousands of times. The accident was his first, Black said.
Eglet declined to share the amount of the settlement with the Review-Journal but said he hoped it would encourage Jimmy John’s to rethink its emphasis on speedy delivery.
“Yeah, you could be freaky fast delivery, but you’re going to endanger the public if you do that,” the lawyer said. “Here we have a 19-year-old kid whose life has been destroyed by them trying to rush a sandwich to someone’s house.”
