According to the Tennessean, a cyclist in Nashville may receive a $196,000 settlement after she injured herself on an unsafe storm drain.
The newspaper reported that in 2009, Margaret Yoste was leading a group of cyclists from White Bridge Road to Shelby Bottoms in East Nashville when she made a right turn on Charlotte Avenue onto Third Avenue downtown. Yoste’s tire hit the front of a stormwater drain, with a grate that ran parallel to the street, rather than the widely used perpendicular models.
Yoste flipped over her bike and suffered a lacerated chin, a broken tooth, and a fractured jaw that required surgery. The newspaper reported that a similar accident took place in 2006 on downtown Church Street, and the Nashville City Council agreed to settle the cyclist’s injury lawsuit for $130,000.
City officials said that they plan to launch a five-year, $1.7 million campaign to replace the parallel grates. “We’re trying to bring more resources to the table so that everyone is working on this problem because it’s really everybody’s problem,” Metro Water Services Deputy Director John Kennedy told the Tennessean. Kennedy said the city has replaced about 2,000 grates already, but more than 2,000 parallel versions remain downtown. Davidson County has 33,655 storm grates.
Catastrophic injuries caused by bicycle accidents include traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. If you or someone you know has been involved in an accident due to another party’s negligence, call our Nashville car accident attorney today at (615) 866-3938. You may be entitled to compensation.
“Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?” – Job 12:9