A Chicago man is suing the State of Indiana for civil damages, claiming that inadequate signage on Cline Avenue and gaps in concrete barriers failed to prevent a fiery crash that killed his wife in March 2015.
Zohra Hussain, 51, was a passenger in a car driven by her husband, Iftikhar Hussain, 64, when they were headed south on Cline Avenue on the morning of March 28, following a route on their GPS. The suit alleges that barricades and signs to prevent motorists from driving on the bridge had been moved, and by the time Hussain realized that the bridge was out, “it was too late,” the suit says.
He applied the brakes, but the car plunged about 40 feet and burst into flames on BP property near Riley Road in East Chicago. Zohra Hussain died from burns suffered in the crash, and Iftikhar Hussain suffered burns to his hands, legs and head, while trying to pull his wife out of the wreckage, according to his lawyer, Tim Schafer Sr.
Last spring, INDOT officials said that the bridge is inspected weekly, but they confirmed that a barricade and sign had been moved prior to the crash
The suit’s other defendants are the Indiana Department of Transportation, Walsh Construction Company, and several companies responsible for the bridge’s reconstruction — United Bridge Partners LLP, Cline Avenue Bridge LLP, FIGG Bridge Builders LLP, FIGG Bridge Engineers LLP and FIGG CEO Linda Figg. The bridge was demolished in 2012 due to structural concerns that closed it in 2009.
Schafer said that lawyers are considering adding the GPS company to the suit at some point, but that it would be a separate and distinct claim.
“We’re arguing that if these guys had done their job in the first place that this crash never would have happened,” Schafer said. “They’re supposed to have 10 feet wide by 3 feet wide sections all the way across the road, but somebody moved them. Who moved them?”