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Company Defends Lawsuit Over Foothill Motorcycle Crash
Ihab Abouelfittouh, a hardworking, likable Caltrans employee was killed when his motorcycle ran off a curvy foothill road in September 2004.
Abouelfittouh's wife, Kimberly, and two children are suing the Fresno county for more than $2.6 million in economic damages because Abouelfittouh was a rising Caltrans civil engineer who was responsible for delivering transportation projects for counties throughout Central California. They also want unspecified damages for pain and suffering.
In opening statements, lawyers agreed Abouelfittouh was traveling north on Watts Valley Road, going 50 mph in a 55 mph zone, when he ran off the east side of the road and hit a metal drainage culvert on September 24, 2004.
Abouelfittouh, 41, was thrown from his 2002 Yamaha 1100cc motorcycle and had massive head injuries despite wearing a helmet and other protective gear.
He died at the scene.
The family's lawyer, Rick Watters, told jurors that Fresno County was negligent because it knew the exposed culvert was dangerous - a similar crash had happened three years before in the same spot where Abouelfittouh was killed.
Watters also said The California Highway Patrol investigated the crash in October 2001 and sent its reports to Fresno County, saying a paddle sign that warned of the culvert was missing.
The lawsuit says that the soil around the culvert was in the same eroded condition in 2001 as it was on the date of Abouelfittouh's death three years later.
Watters said Abouelfittouh hit the curve, rode onto the dirt shoulder and hit the culvert, which was exposed because the area around it was eroded, leaving a large hole.
The combination of a hole, exposed culvert, lack of paddle sign, and the curve and structure of the roadway killed Abouelfittouh, family's lawyer Watters said.
Two months after the crash, the paddle marker was replaced and the exposed culvert was later covered with dirt and rocks, Watters said.