Seriously injured Seminole Ridge student could receive $4.7 million

Palm Beach Post (FL)

Jan. 19--The family of a Seminole Ridge High student who lost an eye and sustained massive head and facial injuries in a 2013 shop class accident received a settlement Wednesday from the Palm Beach County School Board that could pay out up to $4.7 million.

Dustin Reinhardt, now 20, was hospitalized for two months after a tractor tire exploded in his face Sept. 4, 2013, and has resided in assisted-living facilities since then. Family members say that because Reinhardt lost parts of his brain that control reasoning and judgment, he will likely need someone to supervise day-to-day living for the rest of his life.

The settlement pays out $300,000 immediately and up to $4.7 million if the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott give their approval. State Sen. Perry E. Thurston of Broward County has agreed to introduce a claims bill that could lead to the family receiving the full payout.

"I don't want to get my hopes up too high that this is over, but it seems like we may be headed in that direction," Scott Reinhardt, Dustin's father, said Thursday.

Dustin Reinhardt was an 11th-grader at Seminole Ridge with dreams of becoming a mechanic or long-haul truck driver when a tire he was inflating at the school's automotive academy exploded, causing a tire rim to smash into his face. Multiple surgeries followed, including two on his brain. Reinhardt lost his right eye, parts of his face and brain and, nearly, his life.

Since November, Reinhardt has been living at NeuroInternational, an assisted living facility in Sarasota.

"Everything we have been told is that he will never be able to be totally independent," said Scott Reinhardt, Dustin's legal guardian along with his stepmother Jo Ann Reinhardt.

Acquiring at least some independence is a reasonable goal, Scott Reinhardt said, and his son is gaining that at the Sarasota facility, learning basic skills like shopping and cooking meals with his fellow residents.

The cost of Dustin's enormous medical bills has mostly been paid by the school district's catastrophic insurance fund. That arrangement will continue for 10 years from the date of the accident, or 2023 in Dustin's case.

After that, the Reinhardts are on their own. The $300,000 the family is set to receive immediately will be a pittance compared to the cost of Dustin's long-term care, which runs in the thousands of dollars every week.

Despite the hand dealt his son, Dustin maintains a zest for life and expresses no resentment about his situation, his father said.

"He is -- 99.9 percent of the time -- cheerful, upbeat and looking forward to the next moment in his life," Reinhardt said. "That's just Dustin."

Reinhardt's accident was one of two that occurred in Seminole Ridge's auto shop class during the 2013-14 school year. In April 2014, a student sustained serious injuries after he was pinned to a work bench by a car driven by another student.

Ray Craig, an instructor who supervised the automotive repair class when the accidents took place, was fired in 2015, according to the school district.

In the wake of those accidents, the school district has made changes to the auto shop program that includes extensive safety training for students and staff, the addition of a second in-class instructor and more stringent operating procedures, according to a district spokeswoman.

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