Blog Post

Cyclist Sues King County for $20 Million in Bicycle Accident Case


April 21, 2008
Topic: Bicycle Accidents

Give him a choice, and Jeffrey Totten would prefer to have his physical and mental faculties just as they were before his bicycling accident, instead of the $20 million claimed in the lawsuit. All the money in the world couldn't compensate for paralysis in your left side, memory loss and the bleak possibility of being confined to a nursing home facility for the rest of his life.

September 4, 2006 started out as a day full of hope for Jeffrey. The Seattle resident was a project manager at an energy consulting firm, and had just received news that he had been accepted at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, where he planned to pursue an MBA in Sustainable Business. Things couldn't look better for the young engineer, and he had planned to spend the day cycling with his friends. He has been a lifelong outdoors enthusiast, and that morning set off with his friends to one of Seattle's bike parks. A few miles into the bike path, Jeffrey found a downhill stretch in the path, and began cycling downhill. There was no reason to suspect anything, or fear any eventuality. After all, it was the bicycle path, which as everyone knows are safe for bicyclists, right?

Wrong. There was a utility hole in the pavement, and before Jeffrey could know what had hit him, he had been thrown off the bike and smashed to the ground.

In the days following his hospitalization, it was clear that Jeffrey had suffered severe brain injuries. He was paralyzed on his left side, and couldn't even begin to sit up, walk, eat or talk on his own. After months of rigorous treatment and the devotion of his wife Danielle, Jeffrey is only now beginning to gain some of his faculties back, but to expect a complete recovery would be overly optimistic.

His wife has now sued King County for a sum of $20 million for failing to maintain the metal plate that Jeffrey's cycle struck before he was thrown off. Although Jeffrey has made some progress in the months since the accident, she says he still needs very expensive medical care. Jeffrey is at present in a California-based nursing home facility, where bills for his treatment are $1000 per day. It's a lot of money to expect his family to come up with, and they have set up an auction site where they plan to raise money for his care.

With healthcare costs rising the way they have, and when you factor in inflation, the $1000 a day tab will increase as the months go by. The $20 million settlement will only help Jeffrey cope with his medical bills, but it doesn't give him back the promising future that he had before the accident, and it doesn't give him his life back.

There's no reason why pavement on a downhill bicycle trail should not have been well maintained. Speed accelerates while going downhill, and had the County had even a semblance of a maintenance plan in place, it's safe to assume that his accident could have been avoided.

Mr. Totten is represented by the Washington law firms of Messina Bulzomi Christensen and Adler Giersch.

If you have been injured in a bicycle accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.


The California personal injury attorneys at The Reeves Law Group represent victims of accidents, injuries and wrongful death throughout California from our offices in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Ventura County, Fresno County, Kern County, Sacramento County, San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, Antelope Valley, Torrance, Glendale, Bakersfield, Santa Ana, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Ontario, and Victorville.