crashed<\/a> his scooter outside of Moffitt Library last winter,\u00a0according to a complaint filed with the Alameda County Superior Court on Sept. 18.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe man, who is not affiliated with UC Berkeley, was identified as Berkeley resident Kenneth Tyrone Wade.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 1, Wade was riding his electric scooter using \u201cdue care\u201d along the Free Speech Bikeway near Moffitt Library, which was under construction at the time, according to the complaint. The lawsuit details that Wade was seriously injured when he \u201cfell on a lifted portion of the manhole covers\u201d embedded in the roadway and hit his head.<\/p>\n
The claim alleges Wade was not found for an extended period of time despite multiple 911 calls to Berkeley dispatch, exacerbating his injuries.<\/p>\n
According to the claim, the city allegedly failed to maintain a safe roadway and adequately warn people about hazardous conditions. Confusing traffic lanes, changes in traffic direction, insufficient signage and safety devices in a construction zone created a \u201cconcealed trap,\u201d the claim states.<\/p>\n
UCPD and the Berkeley Fire Department arrived on the scene to find the victim unconscious \u2014 but still breathing \u2014 and provided immediate aid. He was then moved to Alameda Health Highland Hospital for further treatment before passing away due to complications of blunt head trauma Jan. 5.<\/p>\n
Minor plaintiff Kenneth Noah Wade, the son of the decedent, is bringing the suit forward through a court-appointed representative. The civil case seeks monetary damages in excess of $1,000,000 for medical expenses, past and future wage loss, general damages, funeral and burial costs as well as pain and suffering prior to death.<\/p>\n
On March 30, the plaintiff filed a claim against UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley, among several other public entities. The court documents show that the city formally rejected the claim July 8 on the basis that the loss occurred on the UC Berkeley campus \u2014 which \u201cis a separate and distinct entity from the City of Berkeley\u201d \u2014 and that the city is therefore not liable.<\/p>\n
According to the court documents, UC Berkeley has not responded to the plaintiff\u2019s claims as of Sept. 18.<\/p>\n
UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore said in an email that campus declined to comment, noting that campus has not been served with a complaint and will address the matter through the legal process.<\/p>\n
The case has been assigned to Judge Chad Stegeman, and an initial case management conference is scheduled for Feb. 19, 2027. The plaintiff\u2019s legal counsel at Wilshire Law Firm, Ryan Cowan, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Content warning: This piece contains references to death. UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley are facing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[21725,189026,21375,32259,189024,189027,189025,189023,54591,143,145,144,189029,149,14759,189028],"class_list":["post-482390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county-superior-court","tag-alameda-health-highland-hospital","tag-berkeley-fire-department","tag-city-of-berkeley","tag-free-speech-bikeway","tag-judge-chad-stegeman","tag-kenneth-noah-wade","tag-kenneth-tyrone-wade","tag-moffitt-library","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-ryan-cowan","tag-uc-berkeley","tag-ucpd","tag-wilshire-law-firm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}