Metro

Runner sues Port Authority over dangerous bridge walkway

A corporate lawyer who’s completed 20 marathons around the world is suing the Port Authority ​over​ a dangerously narrow walkway on the George Washington Bridge that left him knocked to the ground ​with a broken arm ​when a pack of four cyclists rode by last year.

Dennis C. O’Donnell​,​ of the Upper East Side, filed a $2 million suit in Manhattan Supreme Court ​Tuesday ​saying the PA’s own Bicycle Master Plan reported 39 cyclist-related accidents on the bridge between 2010 and 2016.

“Port Authority had knowledge of safety issues on the Shared Pathway for years, but had refused to take action,” the 62-year-old says in ​his suit.

“The amount of traffic on the weekends is pretty intense,” O’Donnell said of the crowded, 10-foot wide pathway. “People who use it do so at their own peril​.”





On May 27, 2017, O’Donnell was returning to Manhattan from a training run when the New Jersey-bound cyclists collided with him, the suit says.

“I was on my way back past the New Jersey side tower,” O’Donnell ​told The Post. “It was a whole group of cyclists from a club coming up both lanes of the path​. ​ ​

“I was waving for them to get out of the way,” ​he said, ​but they ignored his frantic signals​.​

“They sideswiped me and knocked me down,” he said, adding that not one of the uniform-clad group stopped to ask if he was ​OK. He hasn’t been able to identify any of the cyclists.

The accident left​ the lawyer, who specializes in financial restructuring for a Wall Street firm​,​ with a broken ​wing on his dominant right side that required surgery and resulted in “long-term impairment of the use of his arm, elbow and wrist,” ​the ​suit says.





He can’t tie a tie or secure the top button on his shirts. His arm aches nearly every day, he said.

“My injuries were not that devastating but someone could suffer a much graver injury given the conditions,” he warned.

The Port Authority plans to reconstruct the path, but not until 2025.

His suit seeks compensation for his own busted arm plus a court order requiring the PA to fix the bridge faster. O’Donnell only started running competitively at age 55, but has completed nearly two dozen races including the Boston, New York City and Berlin marathons.

A PA spokesman declined to comment.





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