Tag: lawsuit

Injured bicyclist files $13.5M claim against Pima County

photo: Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
photo: Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star

This involves a odd “crossover” type situation with a dedicated right turn only lane at the ‘T’ intersection of Sabino Canyon and Kolb, in Pima County. I’ve looked at the google street view (not sure if that matches the way it was at the time of the Jan 2015 crash); anyway, it’s confusing. There are two northbound bike lanes (or are they “bike routes with striped shoulders? — see that background at the article about a cyclist seriously injured at the Dodge Bridge in Pima County who received a $1.8M settlement with the county).

Continue reading “Injured bicyclist files $13.5M claim against Pima County”

Dodge Blvd Bridge and sub-standard Pima Co bike facilites

First off — never ride too close to the edge of the road; you are more likely to run into problems there including debris, bad road surface conditions or other obstructions like drainage grates and so forth.  See where to ride on the road for more.

Pima County / Tucson does not have “Bike Lanes”, they, if asked, insist there are no bike lanes, but rather they are “Bike Routes with Striped Shoulders“. Though of course they (everyone, including Pima County’s press releases ) refer to these odd bike facilities as bike lanes whenever convenient — e.g. “The bike lanes on the Dodge Boulevard Bridge over the Rillito River will be closed for drainage modifications, starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, 2013. Bicyclists are asked to seek an alternate route.” [Some updates; as of Jan 2015 I just noticed there are two different bikeway maps covering Pima county, one put out by pima co DOT, at pima.gov and another put out by PAG (Pima Assoc of Gov’ts) the PAG map marks almost everything in blue, including this hot mess, which according to the key is a “Bike Lane”. The PCDOT map is the one that still refers to the bike route with striped shoulders, using the red key color]

Now there’s this… this is a real abomination:

BadBikeFacilityDodgeBlvd

(I’m not sure if this reflects what is there now, or rather what was there at the time of this bad crash) Here’s a google maps street view of the Dodge Blvd bridge over the Rillito near Tucson (apparently it’s owned by Pima County). There is some sort of weird 2′ wide band of green (paint, i guess?) directly next to the curb — from what i gather the gap referred to below is between the curb and the green paint. The google street view coincidentally caught a cyclist dutifully riding within that very narrow band of green paint, just inches from the “drainage gap”. Continue reading “Dodge Blvd Bridge and sub-standard Pima Co bike facilites”

[civil suit finally settled] Rumsey guilty of manslaughter

[ UPDATE May 2012: Final awards in Jose Rincon’s civil lawsuit after a trip to appellate court; azstarnet.com (though their links seem to regularly go dead). Note that the original award of $13 was the LARGEST judgement ever against the city:

…Chuy’s settled before the February 2010 civil trial for an undisclosed sum. During the trial, jurors were told that a city engineer had abandoned plans to add five feet of asphalt to the roadway during an improvement project, creating a large offset in the lanes on either side of Vozack Lane, just east of Harrison. As a result, Rumsey ended up in the bike lane when her lane ended and she tried to merge.

The jury decided Rumsey, the city of Tucson and Chuy’s were equally responsible and awarded $40 million to the Rincon family. The city’s $13 million share was the largest individual judgment ever against the city. The city appealed, and Pima County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Lee denied the motion for a new trial but granted the defendants’ request for a reduced judgment, slashing the judgment to $12 million.

The city then went to the Arizona Court of Appeals, and it decided in March 2011 that the case should be retried. The Rincons settled with both Rumsey and the city recently.

The settlement with Rumsey is confidential; the settlement with the city specifically states the city was making “no admission of liability, culpability or fault, either by expression or implication.” …. Back when Lee reduced the $40 million judgment, Rincon said he and his wife had agreed to settle the lawsuit for $950,000 before trial, but the city refused. He bemoaned the fact that because the public didn’t know the city hadn’t accepted the settlement offer, residents were under the impression he and his wife were “money-grubbers.”…

The city’s appeal is online at justia.com RINCON v. RUMSEY, CITY OF TUCSON, contains some interesting stuff. (it should also be online via court-of-appeals div 2 website, but i haven’t looked for it there). Note that the superior-court appeal upheld the trial judge; while the court of appeals found the trial court judge (and thus the superior court appeals judge) erred.

]

Glenda Rumsey was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Tucson teenager Jose Rincon.  (see here for a roundup of types of murder). Like many drunk drivers, she also tried to run. Continue reading “[civil suit finally settled] Rumsey guilty of manslaughter”