FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Jury Orders County of Cumberland to Pay $1.5 Million for Injuries Caused by Roadway

The County of Cumberland let a dangerous road condition on Route 555 in Laurel Lake deteriorate until it was no longer safe to use by the traveling public. Now a jury in that same county has ordered them to pay $1.5 million to Eugene Williams for their repeated failure to fix the condition and for failing to properly warn of the danger. The verdict was rendered Wednesday, November 19, 2008.

Bridgeton resident Eugene Williams, was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle home after visiting with his in-laws in Downe Township when he crossed the damaged roadway on March 7, 2005 at approximately 6:15p.m. It was near dark. His wife was riding behind him and to his right on a separate motorcycle. Neither had known of the condition previously and had not used that road on the trip to Downe Township. When he hit the damaged section of roadway, his bike crashed to the ground sliding along the pavement almost one hundred feet. He was unconscious at the scene.

The County had actual notice of the condition having made approximately 50 temporary and ineffective repairs to this section of roadway over the prior three years. They had been there just days earlier. Admittedly, they knew the repeated temporary repairs would not correct the underlying problem; roadbed failure. Yet, they continued throwing cold tar onto the roadway which not only failed but contributed to the uneven pavement and potholes.

When the road got so bad in January 2005, they stuck up one unlit “damaged road” sign, along the heavily wooded and dark country roadway. The sign failed to define the location or seriousness of the hazard and failed to alert the motorist to reduce his speed. In fact, construction barrels placed on the shoulder of the roadway seemed to indicate that it was the shoulder that had the problem rather than the roadway.

Plaintiff’s roadway expert, Steven Batterman, PhD, a Professor Emeritus from the University of Pennsylvania and past consultant to the NJDOT and Federal government opined that much more was needed. While he felt the road should have been fixed much sooner, he believed the warnings were clearly insufficient given the danger and that the County should have had multiple warning signs including one with a blinking strobe light to make it noticeable and a sign to alert the driver regarding the distance to the hazard and the appropriate speed reduction. He also testified that the construction barrels on the shoulder of the roadway actually “mismarked” the hazard and created confusion for users of the road.

Defendant County of Cumberland and its employees claimed that the cause of the crash was the inattention of Eugene Williams and that they provided sufficient warning. They claimed that they were going to fix the roadway but were waiting for warmer weather. Yet, when asked what speed the motorcyclist should have driven over the hazard, they could not give a speed. Defendant hired an expert who stated the speed should have been 25 MPH but he could not state whether the same injuries would have occurred.

Mr. Williams, a trained motorcycle rider who was riding in a staggered format with his wife, didn’t even see the unlit sign at dusk. The evidence demonstrated that he was driving cautiously and wearing full protective gear. Expert Batterman did an accident reconstruction and determined that Mr. Williams was doing 45 MPH at the time of the accident and that speeding was not an issue.

Mr. Williams, now 61, was seriously injured. He was flown by helicopter to Atlantic City Medical Center for abdominal and head trauma. He sustained a closed head injury, ruptured spleen, lacerated liver and a host of other complications while in the hospital. He was transferred to Bacharach Rehabilitation following a one month hospital stay where he had months of therapy. Unbelieveably, Eugene Williams got himself back to work in three months despite doctors believing he could have stayed out longer. Although he works with continued pain, he has missed relatively little time from work and did not assert a wage loss claim. His most serious injuries continue to be related to his traumatic brain injury which affects his memory, the chronic pain associated with his abdominal injuries caused by internal scarring on the abdominal wall and from the surgery to remove his spleen.

Said DeVoto, “this roadway was an accident waiting to happen. The local governments who have been entrusted by the taxpayers to care for the roadways have to do a better job. In this case, it was especially egregious since the County had so much time to correct the problem and failed to correct the condition or properly warn until after someone got seriously hurt.”

Shortly after Mr. Williams’ accident the County put a blinking light on the sign and moved the construction barrels to the middle of the roadway to better alert drivers. The law did not permit the jury to hear those facts. They also made a permanent repair two weeks after the accident.

Mr. Williams was represented by Louis J. DeVoto of Rossetti & DeVoto, P.C. in Cherry Hill. The trial was conducted over a two-week period before the Honorable Michael Brooke Fisher, JSC in Cumberland County. The Jury deliberated just over two hours before reaching its verdict.

Caption:  Eugene Williams v. County of Cumberland
Docket No. CUM-L-001267-05

Plaintiff’s Experts: Steven Batterman, PhD (Civil Engineering, Accident Reconstruction and Human Factors)  Cherry Hill, NJ

Steven Perkel, LCSW (Emotional damages) Cherry Hill, NJ

Gregory Maslow, MD (Orthpedics) Marlton, NJ

Jacinth Reid-Artist, MD (Rehabilitation Medicine) Pomona, NJ