An unmarked street curb has cost Des Moines taxpayers nearly $1.7 million after cyclists involved in bike crashes there sued the city over their injuries.

The city has settled two such cases, and now faces a third.

Des Moines installed the curb in March 2017 at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Southwest 16th Street. It was part of an intersection redesign to direct pedestrians to a brick crosswalk across the road just south of downtown.

In several lawsuits filed against the city, cyclists claimed they were injured after striking the unmarked curb while riding east on the trail that runs adjacent to MLK Jr. Parkway.

The 6-inch curb, which has since been removed, cut off what was previously a straight path for cyclists using the Martin Luther King Jr. Trail, forcing them to veer left to reach the ramp at the crosswalk.

Mark Evans, a 57-year-old Des Moines man, struck the curb while riding his bike in April 2017, “causing him to fall and sustain injuries to his head, right shoulder and ribs,” according to court documents. Evans settled with the city for $1.5 million last year, as first reported in Cityview earlier this month.

The Des Moines City Council voted May 6 to settle a lawsuit filed by Robert Foss of Van Meter for $185,000. Foss flipped over the handlebars of his bike after hitting the curb. The crash happened two days after Evans' wreck.

Larry Conklin of Des Moines filed a lawsuit against the city on May 7. Conklin claims he injured his head, collar bone and ribs when his bike hit the curb on June 5, 2017.

“I would lean towards it probably being a fluke, but it also underscores when these types of issues are raised, they need to be carefully evaluated,” said Christine Hensley, a former city councilwoman who represented the area when the crashes occurred.

City was warned about dangers

Des Moines' trail system has more than a million users each year, according to city data. The MLK Jr. Trail is especially popular because of its proximity to Gray's Lake Park and downtown.

By the time Conklin hit the curb in June 2017, the city had received multiple complaints about it.

“At barest minimum, we suggest painting the curb yellow,” former City Councilman Carl Voss wrote to the city on May 9, 2017, just days after his friend, Foss, was taken from the scene in an ambulance. Foss broke his collar bone and two ribs, he said.

“It takes an alert cyclist or runner to follow a snaky path to avoid this. Running or cycling two abreast? Good luck,” Voss wrote.

At least two other riders reported crashing at the curb, according to emails submitted as exhibits in Evans' lawsuit.

Evans declined to comment for this story and Foss did not respond to interview requests.

Jeremy Lewis, executive director of Des Moines' Street Collective, a nonprofit that advocates for bike-accessible streets, said he received “numerous” complaints about the intersection, which he relayed to city officials.

“It didn’t make sense to us why that high curb would be engineered into the middle of the trail,” he said.

Lewis said city officials told him they were following the best engineering practices when the curb was added.

“I totally understand that we want to follow best practices and engineering guidelines, but it’s just not that simple,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t work in every single situation, so we have to look at every intersection or every street potentially with a different lens.”

At one point an unknown person painted the curb bright yellow and placed toilet plungers on top of the curb to alert riders.

“I wish (the city) had taken action as early as they could have,” said Mike Armstrong, planning and communications director for the Street Collective.

'People should not be crossing there'

The initial reconstruction at the intersection was part of a larger $955,000 project, approved in July 2016, to rehabilitate sections of MLK Jr. Parkway.

The city spent $78,765 to reconstruct the intersection.

Des Moines' legal department declined to comment to the Register about the specifics of the crashes, citing the ongoing litigation.

In lawsuit depositions, city staff said the curb was added because cyclists, walkers and joggers should've been using the brick crosswalk, which linked up with the Americans with Disabilities Act ramp.

“I would say the reason for the curb is people should not be crossing there,” said Pam Cooksey, an assistant city manager who at the time of the project was the city engineer.

Lawyers for the cyclists argued the alignment of the trail encouraged cyclists to pedal straight across the intersection rather than making the slight detour onto the crosswalk.

Cooksey and Craig Bouska, the city engineer who oversaw the project, both say the brick crosswalk was a visual cue for riders.

“If I'm riding a bike as a bike user, as a shared-use path user, I'm looking at all visual cues that are in front of me,” Bouska said in his 2018 deposition. “Clearly there's a brick street crossing here with designated ramp openings.”

After several accidents were reported, the city placed "furniture" — a bench and a trash can — on the eastern edge of the intersection, according to Cooksey's deposition and photos taken at the time. The idea of the furniture was to further direct cyclists to use the brick crosswalk.

In emails released as part of the lawsuits, city officials also discussed adding signage to the path to notify riders of the curb.

Parks and Recreation Director Ben Page, who received multiple complaints about the curb, questioned in emails with coworkers whether the intersection should be re-aligned.

Eventually, it was. In 2018, the heightened curb was removed along with the brick crosswalk. Now, a painted crosswalk is a straight shot connecting the trail.

“As a result of the complaints that we were receiving and the known development that is going to occur in that vicinity, the decision was made to go ahead and make some interim changes to that intersection to realign the crosswalk,” Cooksey said in a deposition.

Austin Cannon covers the Des Moines metro area for the Register. He can be reached at awcannon@registermedia.com or 515-284-8398.

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