John Gerrity has disclosed that he has settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the city of Menlo Park and the city has agreed to pay him a $2.4 million settlement.

Gerrity’s wife, Deborah Johnson, was critically injured in a bicycle accident in July 2007 and she died several days later of a head injury.

According to a report on Mercury News, Johnson’s bicycle accident was due to the fact that Menlo Park Public Works Department had inadvertently left a flat black octagonal rubber disk they had used as a lane divider in the roadway. The orange post had become detached from the octagonal piece so Johnson did not see the disk and she hit it with her bicycle wheel, causing her to fall and strike her head.

Gerrity’s lawsuit claimed that the Menlo Park Works Department was negligent in their use of this device as the federal Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices prohibits the use of such a device, “posts or raised pavement markers should not be used to separate bicycle lanes from adjacent travel lanes.”

Gerrity has made his lawsuit public because he is trying to raise awareness about the many hazards on the road left by road construction. He says that that safety measures need to be adhered to even in temporary work zones.

This information is provided by Tri-Cities Personal Injury blog, a service of Anderson Law. We are dedicated to representing families in their wrongful death lawsuits when a loved one has died due to the negligence of another.


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