A woman thrown from her bicycle when her front tire lodged in a large crack in a poorly maintained road has been offered a $48,500 settlement in Texas.
Commissioners in Travis County, the former home of Lance Armstrong, voted to make the offer to bicyclist Alejandra Cornelius, 31, who suffered serious dental injuries when she did a header over the handlebars.
No jury
When considered with some other cases close to home here in the Pacific Northwest, it proves that the old saying, “You can't sue city hall,” is not always true.
According to the Austin American-Statesman:
“Considering Cornelius' medical bills, which exceeded $30,000, her lost wages and photos of the road, County Judge Sam Biscoe said he concluded that a jury might side against the county. “And if a jury did, (an award) would be in excess of $48,000.”
The judge was part of a settlement review process.
Other settlements
The case brings to mind some recent bicycle crashes on roads in Washington state that led to settlements.
In one, the state Department of Transportation agreed to pay $8 million to a Seattle bicyclist who was paralyzed after his bike caught a wide seam on the Montlake Bridge and fell.
In another, King County (WA) agreed to pay $3.5 million to a cyclist who crashed when his tire struck a hole that had developed around a survey marker in a road promoted as a bicycle route. The man was in a coma for 7 months after the 2006 accident and still needs around-the-clock care at a nursing home.
In still another, the city of Seattle paid $25,000 to a bicyclist who crashed when his front tire got lodged in a storm drain. According to the attorney, the city offered the settlement instead of agreeing to locate and replace all the city's storm drains with wide slots that run parallel with traffic.
Permanent solutions
The bicyclist in Texas suffered a broken jaw, split upper lip and the loss of four teeth. The injuries required frequent medical and dental treatment.
The lawsuit said that cracks as wide as 5 inches and up to 14 inches deep has developed in the road near the town of Manor. Apparently it's a common problem on county roads in the area built on clay, which expands and contracts with the weather.
The county immediately made a temporary fix on the deteriorated road and launched a study on how to make permanent improvement to all such roads in the area.
Recent Comments