Trial begins over death of Ugandan woman killed in Utah park
Attorneys for the family of a Ugandan activist killed by a swinging metal gate at Arches National Park in Utah are seelomg $140 million in damages in a wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ludovic Michaud was driving around the scenic red rock landscapes of Utah's Arches National Park on a windy spring day in 2020 when something unthinkable happened: A metal gate whipped around, sliced through the passenger door of his car and decapitated his new 25-year-old wife, Esther Nakajjigo.
The tragic accident is now at the center of a wrongful death lawsuit Michaud and Nakajjigo's family are pursuing, in which they argue that the U.S. Park Service was negligent and did not maintain the gates at the entrances and exits to the parks, leading to Nakajjigo's death.
In opening arguments Monday in Salt Lake City, attorneys representing Michaud and Nakajjigo's family said they were seeking $140 million in damages from the government.
Their lawsuit claims when the national parks reopened in April 2020 after being shuttered due to COVID-19, rangers at the national park in Utah didn't secure the gate in place, which in effect “turned a metal pipe into a spear that went straight through the side of a car, decapitating and killing Esther Nakajjigo.”
