Recent news reports indicated that the City of Duluth agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by an injured cyclist for $125,000.  The suit was filed by Cassandra Olson, a student, who was thrown from her bike when she struck a recessed manhole cover while riding along a newly resurfaced street.  These kinds of road hazard are non-issues for motorists, but for a cyclist they can prove deadly.  Discovery revealed that the worker’s had failed to level the manhole and left the dangerous depression in the roadway, which was hidden from cyclists’ view in certain lighting conditions.  Olson was reportedly thrown over the bars of her bike when she hit the recessed manhole, and struck her head suffering various injuries, including persistent headaches and occasional bouts of dizziness.

Following the incident, the city reportedly sent a memo to its staff to remind them of the importance of checking manholes to insure they were leveled whenever streets are resurfaced.