Earlier than scooter rider crashed in Salt Lake Metropolis, grievance warned sidewalk was ‘a neck breaker’

SALT LAKE CITY — Adam Guymon was nervous somebody would get damage on a cracked, jagged sidewalk in Salt Lake Metropolis, and he wished one thing finished about it.

Guymon, who navigates the town in his energy wheelchair, filed a grievance with the town greater than a yr and a half in the past, together with an image of the tilted concrete. He known as it a “neck breaker” and a “wheelchair breaker,” in accordance with metropolis data KSL obtained by means of a public data request.

However Guymon says he obtained nowhere. Then in March, a lady crashed on a rental scooter over the identical buckle within the sidewalk — on West Temple between 400 and 500 South — and died. It is simply the kind of catastrophe Guymon feared would occur.

“I do really feel anger on the identical time I really feel frustration,” mentioned Guymon, 47. “They’re elected to, you recognize, guarantee that the town is working appropriately and that persons are protected of their metropolis.”

When Guymon filed his grievance, he identified the hazard had been there since former Salt Lake Metropolis Mayor Jackie Biskupski held workplace. Her time period resulted in January 2020.

“It is actually saddening that it took somebody to truly should go away, you recognize, somebody needed to lose a household or buddy due to that,” Guymon mentioned.

A whole lot of complaints

He is not the one one who has reported this kind of downside, in accordance with knowledge KSL obtained by means of one other open data request.

With addresses for complaints filed since April 2022, the KSL Investigators made a map exhibiting greater than 300 areas round city.

One among these deteriorating sections is true on the town’s doorstep, on the northwest nook exterior Metropolis Corridor.

Regardless of a number of requests from the KSL Investigators, the town wouldn’t make the mayor or anybody else accessible for an interview. In an emailed assertion, a spokesperson wrote it is the town’s job to ensure sidewalks are protected and provided condolences to the family members of Ashley Rose Peck, who died after crashing on a scooter.

“Public security is one thing Salt Lake Metropolis prioritizes and takes very critically. Utah legislation requires the town, because the proprietor of the sidewalks, to maintain them freed from hazards,” Andrew Wittenberg, director of communications for Mayor Erin Mendenhall, mentioned within the assertion.

Questions on legal responsibility

It is a completely different response than the one the town gave Guymon in 2022. A metropolis consultant instructed him the duty for restore was the property proprietor’s, in accordance with a replica of Guymon’s grievance and correspondence with the town.

On this occasion, the property proprietor is the Sheraton Resort, which did not return KSL’s repeated requests for remark left by e mail and telephone.

The town had instructed Guymon the situation could be evaluated, however “with the restricted funding to those applications it could take a couple of building seasons to handle the sidewalk at this location.”

As an alternative of taking a couple of seasons to repair the buckle exterior the Sheraton, it took a tragedy.

Peck, a 33-year-old mom of 5, was using a scooter at night time with associates when she crashed on a Salt Lake Metropolis sidewalk and hit her head.

Her household instructed KSL that her dying might have been prevented. As an alternative, they obtained a devastating telephone name.

“She had a really intensive mind injury finished, that she had hit her temporal facet and that she did not have quite a lot of time,” her cousin Emilio Gonzales beforehand instructed KSL.

Whereas Salt Lake Metropolis requires these on scooters to make use of the highway, it may be troublesome to take action safely, Gonzales mentioned. Many scooter riders use the sidewalks as a substitute, particularly at night time.

The town did not reply KSL’s query about how a lot it shells out for sidewalk fixes however mentioned in 2023 it made 65 repairs by means of its cost-sharing program with owners, who can get reimbursed for half the invoice. Companies can reap the benefits of one other provide: In the event that they cowl the price of supplies, the town pays for the labor.

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However precisely whose job is it to ensure metropolis sidewalks are protected?

The reply is each the federal government and whoever owns the neighboring property, in accordance with Utah legal professional Bob Sykes. He is sued cities and property house owners in circumstances the place the sidewalk’s a multitude and somebody will get damage.

However he says one bears extra duty than the opposite.

“The most important fault right here, for my part, lies with the town,” Sykes mentioned. “They personal the sidewalks; they put them down.”

Sykes questions why nobody fastened the buckle earlier.

“What had been they considering?” Sykes puzzled aloud. “That’s extremely negligent, each the town and property proprietor. How do you permit a hazard like that to exist and never be liable?”

A sluggish course of

Legal responsibility apart, hazards stay. The KSL Investigators walked the sidewalks with identified complaints and located crumbling or uneven pavement throughout the town, together with downtown on busy streets like 200 South and 400 West, over on the East Bench and outdoors two colleges on the town’s west facet, marked for restore in inexperienced spray paint.

The concrete ledge on Navajo Road close to Mountain View Elementary Faculty and Glendale Center Faculty is only one of many spots awaiting repairs for months — typically greater than a yr — after somebody instructed the town about the issue.

Myrna Jeffries instructed KSL she tripped over the uneven sidewalk final yr and mentioned it is upsetting that the sidewalk nonetheless is not fastened.

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Whereas she did not break any bones, she mentioned the ache was intense when she fell and scraped her knee badly.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, it is like a 7,” Jeffries recalled.

Guymon is shedding endurance as he waits for sidewalk repairs throughout city.

Whereas these divots and cracks are issues of safety for everybody, he factors out they’re a problem of equity for him and everybody else utilizing wheelchairs, walkers, and mobility scooters, together with anybody who merely has a tougher time getting round.

“Somebody ought to be capable to use the identical sidewalk equally as anybody else whether or not you are disabled or not,” Guymon mentioned.