Pima County Board of Supervisors candidate John Winchester is suing the City of Tucson for injuries he sustained when he rode his bike into the streetcar’s rails. According to court records, Winchester filed a Notice of Claim against the City of Tucson, and the subsequent lawsuit for an accident he had on University Avenue on March 23, 2015.
The lawsuit, filed by the law firm of Dwyer Hernandez P.C., names the City of Tucson, Granite Construction, Railworks Track System, and Old Pueblo Track Works as well as numerous John Does. The lawsuit does not specify Winchester’s injuries nor does it specify an amount Winchester hopes to collect.
While the lawsuit outlines that many alleged failures of the City of Tucson and the large rail and construction company, it does not name the bicyclist he claims was the cause of his actions.
According to Winchester’s suit, Winchester was at the “intersection of University Avenue and Euclid Avenue in the designated bike lane,” reads the filing. When Winchester “passed through the intersection, he swerved to avoid another cyclist and his bicycle tire became lodged in the streetcar track causing him to be thrown from his bicycle and sustain serious injuries.”
Winchester claims that “inadequate warning signs existed to alert cyclists of the hazards of the roadway as it proceeds west on University Avenue up to and throughout the Euclid Avenue intersection.”
Winchester goes so far as to claim that the “construction, design, and placement of the tracks constituted a defect and/or unreasonably dangerous condition.”
As Winchester’s attorney notes: “There has been a history of bicycle accidents related to the subject rail system in a sufficient amount to warn the Defendant of the hazards and unreasonably dangerous condition presented by having tracks run horizontally with a designated bicycle path, vehicular traffic, and parallel parking, all sharing the same area.”
So many accidents in fact, that many bicyclists are avoiding the roads with streetcar access whenever possible. Also, for those heavily bicycle travelled streetcar roads, since 2014, City officials have taken numerous measures to ensure the safety of bicyclists. Those measures include building streetcar stops in the center of the street to prevent congestion, signs warning bike riders of the tracks, a safety education campaign and rubber bumper-type strips inside the track ruts.
Winchester, a proud father of “two beautiful children (with another on the way),” according to his campaign website, is seeking unspecified damages for him and his wife, Fernanda Quintanilla, for their past suffering and anticipated future suffering due to a “loss of consortium.”
Ironically, Amy Hernandez of the Dwyer Hernandez P.C. law firm was reported to be a potential opponent for Ally Miller, who currently holds the District 1 supervisor slot. Miller has been opposed primarily by those who support using public funds for private interests.
