Click here to subscribe today or Login.
First Posted: 8/29/2013
WILKES-BARRE — A Benton woman has filed a lawsuit against a Plymouth adult entertainment bar, claiming the business knowingly gave her alcohol when she was drunk, causing her to drink and drive and ultimately strike a car head-on. She and two others were injured.
Rachel Fincham Kaminski, 27, filed the suit in Luzerne County Court against the Getaway Lounge, alleging negligence and requesting more than $100,000 in damages.
Kaminski filed the suit through her attorneys, Jonathan Comitz and Kristopher Januzzi.
According to the suit, Kaminski was at the Getaway Lounge on Nov. 26, 2011, and drank alcohol until about 11:30 p.m.
The bar and an unnamed worker, who is identified in the suit as Jane Doe, continued to provide her with drinks even though she was “visibly intoxicated, had slurred speech and was speaking incoherently,” according to the lawsuit. Kaminski left the bar and attempted to drive home, side-swiping several vehicles, driving on the wrong side of the road and causing a head-on collision.
Kaminski had a blood-alcohol level of 0.301 percent, the suit states. A person in Pennsylvania is consider intoxicated with a BAC of 0.08 percent.
The lawsuit claims the accident was caused by the Getaway Lounge and Jane Doe’s “negligence, carelessness and recklessness” and that the business had no system in place to identify if someone had consumed too much alcohol and was unable to drive.
Kaminski was charged in the incident and in August 2012 pleaded guilty to two counts of driving under the influence and one count each of accidents involving personal injury and reckless driving. She was later sentenced to 72 hours to six months in prison as well as one year probation.
Kaminski’s driver’s license was suspended for one year.
According to the criminal complaint, Kaminski said she was at the bar with a friend she brought there for an audition and that she remembered drinking only three beers. Kaminski told police that after the incident and learning her BAC, her friends told her she also consumed several shots in addition to the beer.