Family of Man Who Fell From Bridge Plans To Sue City

The family of the man who died last month on the Kilbourn Avenue bridge has hired an attorney and intends to sue the City of Milwaukee

On Aug. 15, Richard Dujardin, 77, of Rhode Island, fell 71 feet to his death from the downtown Milwaukee bridge as it opened.

Milwaukee attorney Jay Urban held a press conference Wednesday morning, where he emphasized the importance of an independent investigation and implored eyewitnesses to come forward with information.

“Right now, there is not to my knowledge an independent investigation going on,” Urban said. “You have the very authorities that operate these systems looking at these systems. They should at least be looking at the consultants, the vendors who, who advise them to install it this way.”

The Milwaukee Police Department investigated the incident. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case for possible charges.

The Kilbourn Avenue bridge is a bascule model, meaning the two sides separate in the middle and swing upward, in contrast with a lift bridge, which raises like a platform.

The bridge is controlled remotely by an operator in the Water Street bridge tower, who also controls the seldom opened bridges over the Menomonee River.

Bridge operators use a camera system to monitor the movement of the bridges. Nick Goodwin of the city Department of Public Works (DPW) said Kilbourn Avenue bridge has two cameras on each side. However, those cameras only provide a live feed with no audio and do not record or store video.

City officials including Alderman Robert Bauman are openly discussing the possibility of recording the feed and adding operators back to all of the city’s bridges 21 moveable bridges, 10 of which are operated remotely.

“We have no way of verifying what the operator saw on that video or didn’t see,” Bauman said at a Public Works Committee hearing on Sept. 8.

There is some speculation regarding whether or not Dujardin ducked under the safety gate or was already on the bridge when the gates descended. Urban said Dujardin was hard of hearing and slow moving.

DPW is reviewing bridge operating procedures and is considering updating the live feed cameras to record and store footage, said Jerrel Kruschke, interim commissioner of DPW, told the public works committee.

Kruschke confirmed that the cameras were working properly on Aug. 15, but there is no way to access the footage from that day. He also said that Milwaukee Police Department is actively investigating the incident, but hasn’t briefed DPW on its findings so far.

Urban is seeking video evidence and eyewitness accounts with the intent to file a notice of claim, which is a first step in establishing grounds for a lawsuit. The Common Council typically denies claims bigger than $50,000. In that case, Urban could legally take the case straight to court.

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