Facts

On June 11, 2016, plaintiff Thomas Ramos and his wife, Rose, went for a 25-mile bicycle ride through the countryside north of their home in Livermore. The final leg of the trip took them on North Livermore Ave., a stretch of roadway owned and maintained by the County of Alameda. The road had been resurfaced in 2009, but had rapidly deteriorated in the years since then. Plaintiff suffered a fall.

Plaintiff filed suit against the County of Alameda, which owned and maintained the road.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: The couple contended they were traveling about 20 mph, a modest speed on a descent. As Thomas approached an area of severe deterioration plaintiff's wife called out that passing cars were approaching. Plaintiff checked the side mirror affixed to his helmet, saw the vehicles filling the traffic lane, and was unable to steer around the large pothole ahead of him. His wheel hit it head on and his bike stopped in its tracks. He was thrown to the ground, his left side hitting the pavement with enough force to crack eight ribs, break his scapula, and fracture his skull beneath this helmet

In 2011, the county decided to stripe the shoulder of the road with bicycle lane markings and signage. Plaintiff argued that only a two-page work order existed for the project and no one from the county appeared to know anything about it. Plaintiff claimed the county did this work without ever inspecting the shoulder, without ever assessing the condition of the pavement of the shoulder, and without clearing or patching that pavement. In the years after the striping, plaintiff claimed, the county did not conduct any sort of inspections of the bicycle lane, nor did it perform any kind of maintenance on it. Plaintiff contended that it was not just the bicycle lane that had deteriorated (as much of North Livermore was), but the designated bicycle lane was even more treacherous than the motor vehicle lanes.

Plaintiff alleged that the county had allowed the section of roadway on which he fell to become badly deteriorated, that the county failed to inspect or repair the roadway, and that without doing any inspection of examination of the roadway simply painted a bicycle lane onto it. Plaintiff argued that bicyclists were directed to use the road's bicycle lane, but the pavement in the lane was so badly deteriorated as to be an extreme danger to bicyclists. Both plaintiff and his wife were experienced cyclists who, just a year before, had ridden across country to attend plaintiff's class reunion at West Point

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: The county disputed the allegations.

Damages

Plaintiff incurred nearly $400,000 in paid medical expenses, almost $40,000 in lost income, and several more thousand in property damage and treatment-related expenses.

Injuries

Plaintiff was transported by ambulance to the Eden Medical Center's trauma unit. Plaintiff suffered numerous serious injuries in his crash, including fractures of his scapula and ribs requiring open surgical repair, a collapsed lung, and severe road rash. He also had multiple ongoing problems from those injuries, such as urinary incontinence, hearing loss, diminished lung capacity, left side weakness and numbness, decreased range of motion, and severe traumatic brain injury.

Result

The parties settled for $950,000.

Other Information

After one trial continuance and with the second trial date approaching, the county filed a motion for summary judgment. While the motion was pending, the parties settled.