LINCOLN - A reflective pavement marker installed to improve highway safety in Nebraska wound up costing the state nearly $1.5 million.
That's how much the state will pay an Ashland man left with a plate in his head and a permanent disability after a loose marker flew through his windshield.
Nebraska lawmakers approved money for the settlement Friday in the annual state claims bill.
The October 2007 accident occurred on Interstate 80 east of Ashland.
The reflective marker hit Tom Wolfe in the forehead, causing a traumatic brain injury.
A photograph of his work van shows the rectangular hole in the windshield where the marker went through.
“He's really fortunate that he did live,” said James Schaefer, Wolfe's attorney.
But Wolfe, who was a master electrician, has been unable to go back to his previous work.
And despite extensive therapy and vocational rehabilitation, he has been unable to work any other job, Schaefer said.
He said his client struggles with depression and described his life as “day-to-day.”
“If you take somebody's employment and he's a 52-year-old man, that's pretty devastating,” Schaefer said.
The marker that caused the problem was one of thousands used on Nebraska highways since the early 1980s.
Dan Waddle, traffic engineer for the Department of Roads, said the agency had stopped including the markers in new roads projects before Wolfe's accident.
After the accident, the department spent two years removing the 53,000 remaining markers.
Waddle said Wolfe's accident was part of the reason for the removal project. The project cost more than $1 million.
The markers had been used on Interstate 80, expressways and the left turn bays on state highways, he said.
They had an H-shaped iron frame, which was glued into grooves cut in the pavement and which held a flat plastic reflector in the center.
Waddle said the markers reflected better than paint when roads were wet. They were used in addition to paint and showed up as bright white spots at night.
The markers were designed so snow plows could pass over without dislodging them.
Instead of the markers, Nebraska now is using new types of paints and tapes that have better reflectivity when wet, Waddle said.
Some states, including Iowa, also have been removing their markers, Schaefer said. But Waddle said others are still using them.
Schaefer said his client is happy with the agency's quick action to remove the markers.
“I think he feels he's made the highways safer,” he said.
The settlement is among the larger payments made by the state but nowhere near the largest.
The record was a $9.9 million payment made in 2007 to a Schuyler youth who suffered severe brain damage, paralysis, double vision and difficulty speaking in an accident in which a highway traffic signal showed green in both directions.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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