The Brief
- Oakland will pay Ty Whitehead a record $7M payout after he suffered permanent injuries from a pothole accident on his bike.
- Oakland has paid the most of any Bay Area city, $34M, in pothole payouts, data shows.
- Oakland is responding by taking the need to pave bike routes very seriously.
OAKLAND, Calif. – The city of Oakland is poised to pay a bicyclist a record $7 million after his wheel struck a pothole on Skyline Boulevard, causing him to be in a coma and suffer a long-term brain injury.
Record $7M pothole payout
The city agreed to settle with Ty Whitehead, 58, of San Francisco earlier this month and the city council is expected to formally approve the payout on Oct. 7.
It is the largest such settlement Oakland has ever paid over a pothole.
“I just hope Oakland realizes that it’s cheaper to repair the roads than to keep paying cyclists,” Whitehead said in an interview on Tuesday. …