Fat Boy

How about
"RAGBRAI Banned Because of Money Hungry Family Members of Former Participant?"

These kind of lawsuits drive me nuts. This guy died and that is a tragedy, but he died doing something of his own free will. That's the nature of a free society. You have the freedom to do stupid crap and die doing it. I do not need a government nanny telling me not to ride my bike, but that's the direction it's headed because of people who will not let bad luck be bad luck. If I'm minding my own business in the bike lane and some drunk runs me down, that's one thing, but if I'm minding my own business in the bike lane, and crash because there was a rock that popped my tire and die, THAT'S MY FAULT.

There was a crack in the road. Iowa freezes in the winter. There are cracks everywhere in the roads because water seeps into small cracks, freezes, and then makes them big cracks. It's part of the deal. If you're in England, you can claim road superiority, but you don't have big winter freezes like happens in the US. If you did, you'd combat the same issues.

My full time job is working in a dangerous sport. A few years ago a participant died doing what he loved and had signed all the wavers to do it. His family, who had supported him in this sport for about 20 years, then had the audacity to sue the sport organizers for his death. There wasn't anything wrong with the venue, safety crew, or arena. The guy just made a mistake, took a bad spill, and died. It was tragic, but for his family to sue presumably because they didn't sign off on some insurance waver is putrid behavior. For the record, he was Canadian, so you don't have to be from the US to have this mindset.

Treespeed

At some point isn't the banning of the ride a Civil Rights Issue? I mean you couldn't ban a march through the county or say a group of motorcyclists using the public roads.

Zyler

The root of the problem is the tort system that allows.....no...encourages law suits for people who don't want to take any responsibility for their actions, are always looking to place blame elsewhere and make a buck doing it.

I am absolutely certain that every rider signs a waiver stating that...cycling is inherently dangerous.....not responsible for the conditions of the road.....will not be held responsible.... Then comes the law firm of Dewey, Chetum & Howe looking to "help the victim gain closure" (oh, and take over a third of the settlement)

2manybikes

When a close loved one, like a spouse dies unexpectadly many people are overcome totally by emotion and logic goes out the window. Some people if not most, can not understand why it happened to them, they desperately search for a "reason" or "fault". Not in a logical sense, more out of emotional trauma or even shock. They "need" to blame something, anything. They are also vulnerable to suggestions from others at this time. Lawyers are willing to take a case they think they can get money from of course.

It's not "not taking responsibility" at all. The person who rode into the crack is dead, he can't take any more responsibility. He didn't sue.

The very start of this was emotional trauma from a loved one. It's typical. Maybe even normal. The family did suffer a lot more than cyclists who can't ride through that county now. Too bad it all happened the way it did.

cyclist- ride is moved

family that sued- husband, father, sibling, etc. died

county- had to pay deductable, yes a problem. but....

Loosing the ride altogether would be annoying yes, but relatively a small, small, thing. If it moved it's not really a problem. The legal precedent set by this decision could grow to become a huge problem.

Fat Boy

If the actual problem is family grief, how is money supposed to remedy the situation?

Come on, say it with me. This grieving family of a person tragically taken from them is displaying disgusting, greed-filled behavior.

Zyler

What a load of crap!!! Yes something terrible and tragic happened, that doesn't entitle his family to money. As an ob/gyn this is the stuff we hear in our malpractice cases. Although no malpractice occurred, rather maloccurance, but they now have a child with problems. They deserve some compensation right? The physician has insurance right?

Try finding a neurosurgeon in south florida if you fall off your bike and bump your head. They said screw it a long time ago. The malpractice premiums (in the hundred thousands) were too much to pay.

DocRay

This is why there will never be a Tour of America. For every rider, there will be three lawyers chasing the peloton, and god forbid a dog gets hurt.

DocRay

same is true for OBGYN...John Edwards (yes, that John Edwards) got very, very rich suing every OBGYN he could find, and now it's almost impossible to find an OBGYN in most states.

mayukawa

Don't get it...if the crack if big enough to sink in a wheel, couldn't the cyclist have seen it and avoid it?

banerjek

The only miracle is that no one has sued for riding off the side of a road yet. That's actually closer to where most riders are than the centerline and is more hazardous (not counting traffic). If the road simply had no edge, people wouldn't fall off it? Where a litigant when you need one

2manybikes

You are using logic to explain emotional thoughts. They are not thinking like you are. I don't mean you are wrong, I mean they have a different point of view. They are devastated.

Having seen both points of view makes me think the family just wants what they percieve as "justice". Or what the lawer tells them it is.
You and I will probably never know for sure. Maybe someone is just thinking "more money!". I just think the odds are against it. 10 years from now they might think of your point of view and feel differently.

Did your spouse drop dead leaving you with two young kids? Emotion takes over, not logic.


Maybe they did.

dutret

A perfect example of this.

urbanknight

I don't know about other states, but California has a law that basically says they aren't liable for road damage, and I know people who have tried and failed to collect damages to their car from potholes and such. The only exception I know of is when there were previous complaints on the damage and nothing was done (which proves neglegence), in which case they were held liable.

sisyphus321

Stupid crap? Did I get that right?

He was riding a bicycle, damn it!

I wasn't on the ride, I wasn't right behind the poor guy who bought it that day, but what evidence do we have that he was engaged in "stupid crap"? Was he riding blindfolded? Did he aim his bike at the crack? Was he drunk or high? Not holding his handlebar?

I understand that "s**t happens" as well as anyone, but the question here is if Crawford county acted in a way where s**t was more likely to happen by granting permission to use their roads if they knew there were problems with the roads. I'm sure that the Register had to obtain permission from Crawford county before planning the route through their roads. Did the county check the roads before granting permission?

If I was a county supervisor in Iowa, I'd be reluctant to give the green light to hosting RAGBRAI for exactly this reason. On the other hand, it's practically the only tourist opportunity for the state and the only excitement in the state (I grew up there), so maybe it's worth the risk. You'd think that they could have shoveled a little tar into the cracks for a lot less than $350,000.

ggg300

gap = not crack

gap implies man made

crack implies nature made

its kinda of a big deal with legal guys...and you'd almost have to pay me to make me explain why its important

Doid23

"Pompous verbosity"? Isn't that statement itself pompous verbosity? I actually thought the poster offered a reasoned, intelligent response.

kc0bbq

Obviously money buys happiness.

https://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/1380/pave.html

Pave the planet. One world, one people, one slab of asphalt.

Fat Boy

Riding a bicycle, not stupid.

Riding a bicycle and not paying attention while riding down the center of a presumably active highway, stupid.

Does that mean that the man should automatically die because he did something stupid, of course not. We all do stupid stuff every day and get away with it. Because we get away with it, though, should in no way mean that we are obligated to get away with it. The simple fact is that he made a very simple mistake and paid a very high price for it, but IT WAS HIS MISTAKE.

I'm curious if he was wearing a helmet and if he was it in good condition and did it fit properly. Dying on a fun ride without getting hit by a car is a relatively rare occurance. I get the feeling we're only getting part of the story.

markjenn

I'm firmly on the anti-lawyer, anti-lawsuit side in this one.

It would be a wonderful world for bicyclists if all roads we want to ride on could be maintained to standards where such an accident could be prevented. This isn't the world we live in. If you take the attitude that a county government is responsible to maintain roads to such standards, then we either have to raise local taxes sufficiently to allow such a high degree of maintenance, or we have to close the roads to bicyclists. The first isn't going to happen, so instead the 2nd has to. Which it now has, at least to participants in the Ragbrai.

Another classic example of how our tort system, in the pursuit of individual safety, works to deny everyone's rights.

Next up: Okay, everyone knows that riding on the edge of the road with cars is dangerous and people get killed. If a government entity can't provide adequate bike lanes or shoulders, then shouldn't the government close roads without such lanes to bicyclists?

- Mark

HDWound

Here is another article on the story which gives a little more detail https://www.southwestiowanews.com/sit...d=555123&rfi=6

The family still has another case outstanding against the State of Iowa.

The ragbrai site also gives an account of each of the 25 deaths in 33 runnings of the event.

crazyb

The ride isn't being threatened, just going thru that particular county. Ragbrai uses a different route every year, and can easily bypass any county or township that it needs or wants to.

MacBeth

Hyperbole and logic of the kind Ann Couler would be proud of. Typical of BF. And that ain't hyperbole

Fat Boy

FWIW, he was wearing a helmet. The crash was on a descent. The overwhelming majority of RAGBRAI deaths have been because of heart attack. Is it fair to then sue the RAGBRAI organization because without the bike ride the heart attack probably wouldn't have occurred?

The sum that the family settled for speaks volumes. If you're suing a government agency, then an attorney is going to go big, probably $10M. If you settle for something like $350k, then you're basically saying, "I know there's no way I'd win in court, but since it will cost you more money to fight me in court than to just pay me off, I'm still going to get money from you." The attorney takes 1/3, and the family gets about $150k after taxes. This is just another reason why the loser of a suit like this should have to pay for both people's attorney fees. That would stop this nonsense in a heartbeat.

I bet a dollar to a doughnut the suit against the state goes exactly the same way.

And yes, RAGBRAI can continue without that particular county, but how many counties have to opt out before there is no place left to ride?

v1k1ng1001

Eight other riders fell off their bikes in the same area where Kirk Ullrich went down. One other rider was taken by air ambulance to a Sioux City hospital prior to Kirk Ullrich's crash, and the road was closed temporarily.

Ullrich's lawsuit had alleged negligence in not properly maintaining County Road E-16, and failing to notify her husband and other RAGBRAI riders of a crack in the pavement.

"If this had gone to trial, regardless of who won, there would have been an appeal," stated Gildemeister. "Sometimes it's better just to put a case like this to bed."




Makes more sense now.

ConstantRider

According to the Des Moines Register, the county will be paying only a $5000 deductible, not $50,000 as someone above wrote. The insurance company that advised the county to settle rather than going to trial will pay the rest.

Also, in addition to the story that Viking1001 cites above, here's something from an earlier article about the incident:

So perhaps this is why the insurance company decided to settle even though the cyclist had signed a liability waiver.