Slips on snow or ice can be painful, but they are seldom fatal. Tragically, though, a slip on Interstate 64 overpass in early 2010 led to the death of pedestrian when he fell onto the roadway below. The family of Manuel Albert “Manny” Rubio, 40, a physicist at NASA Langley Research Center, is suing the City of Hampton, Virginia (VA), claiming the city caused his death by improperly plowing the overpass after a winter snowstorm, the Daily Press reported.
He was apparently walking eastbound on the Cunningham Drive overpass on February 4, 2010, when he plunged onto the road below. A $5 million lawsuit claims city employees were “grossly negligent, and created a public nuisance” in the way they cleared the overpass.
“Snow [was] deposited and accumulated on (the) pedestrian walkway to extreme heights, rendering the guardrails for the I-64 overpass to be dysfunctional,” said the lawsuit.
The City of Hampton said there was no defect in the road or sidewalk surface as alleged.
“The city had no duty to remove the over-accumulation of snow from the road surface and adjacent sidewalk inasmuch as it was still engaged in emergency snow and ice removal activities necessitated by a severe snowstorm a few days before” the Feb. 4 date, the pleading says, according to the Daily Press.
As experienced Virginia (VA) slip and fall injury attorneys we see a number of cases in which falls lead to lawsuits. Recently we reported on how a man who slipped on dog feces at a PetsMart store in Newport News, Virginia (VA), received an undisclosed settlement from the store.
Last year we reported on a how a Colorado (CO) jury awarded $15 million to a truck driver who slipped when he was making a delivery to a Wal-Mart store. This driver suffered a slip and fall injury from grease and ice that was lying outside the store.
The Hampton case is a reminder that ice presents not just a challenge to drivers but to pedestrians. And, in certain cases, liability may arise. In 2010 we reported on how a woman who slipped on stairs in an office building, sustaining serious injuries was awarded $843,000 by a jury.
DM