Shoemaker sues hospital for $50m

Bill Shoemaker, the world's most successful jockey with 8,883 career winners, has filed a $50m (pounds 31.4m) negligence suit against a hospital and eight doctors who treated him after a car crash in 1991 which left him a quadraplegic.

Shoemaker, 65, claims that his injuries were ignored by the doctors in the hours after the crash, when he lost control of his vehicle which tumbled over an embankment in San Dimas. Shoemaker had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13% at the time of the crash, according to the California Highway Patrol. The legal limit to drive in California is 0.08%, but he was not prosecuted for drink driving as no-one else was hurt and because of the severity of his injuries.