http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...0_Afeder518855
Tulsa jury awards $1.1 million in bicycle crash lawsuit
By DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer
Published: 6/24/2010 11:02 PM
Last Modified: 6/24/2010 11:02 PM
A federal jury in Tulsa has awarded a more than $1.1 million verdict in the product-liability case of an Owasso man who was injured in a 2006 bicycle wreck.
Grady Wicklund and his wife, Sandi Wicklund, filed the lawsuit in July 2008 in Tulsa County District Court against Pacific Cycle after Grady Wicklund injured his shoulder and wrist in an Aug. 2, 2006, crash.
Wicklund alleged in his complaint — which was later moved to federal court — that the front fender bracket on his bicycle broke loose, allowing the fender to make contact with the front wheel. He reported hearing a popping noise and then being propelled over the handlebars and onto the pavement.
The plaintiffs alleged that the bike was “inherently defective and dangerous” because of the defective front fender bracket, which broke within the first week the bike was used.
Pacific Cycle countered that it had designed and manufactured an ordinary “pedal powered” bicycle but that a third party had retrofitted it with a motor.
The company claimed that the mounting of the motor was “unforeseeable misuse and modification” of the bike.
Wicklund reportedly underwent five surgeries in the wake of the accident and sustained $74,034.29 in medical expenses.
The couple also traced $25,442.77 in lost wages to the wreck.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Jon Starr said Thursday that his clients preferred not to comment about the $1,100,107.06 that the jury returned in their favor late Wednesday.
Starr said the verdict was more than double the high end of the damages range he had suggested in his
closing argument.
He said that although the plaintiffs are thrilled by the result, “we didn’t come here for a $1 million verdict.”
The plaintiffs presented testimony that the front fender bracket was defective either as a result of a manufacturing process in China or because the piece of metal in question simply was not thick enough.
(I'm wondering what, if any, expert testimony was called for in this case. Putting a motor on a Pacific bicycle strikes me as a very bad idea from the onset.)