FARGO, N.D. - A sister of the bicyclist who died in May after striking a gate at the Dike East recreational area in Fargo has hired an attorney to investigate a possible claim against the Fargo Park District.
Attorney Jeffrey Stowman notified the district in a letter last week that he has been retained by Judith Goodman of Ogema, Minn., to pursue a claim for the death of her brother, Gordon Fineday.
Police say Fineday, 48, died after he apparently struck a metal gate that stretched across a bike path to keep vehicles from driving on it. A passerby found Fineday at 1:11 a.m. May 29.
Stowman, of Detroit Lakes, Minn., said he was retained last week and is still investigating whether there was any negligence by the Park District.
"It appears there is, but there might not be," he said.
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In an e-mailed statement to The Forum, Stowman said Goodman "is upset not just about how her brother died, but also that Gordon Fineday was not the first person to hit the gate."
The Park District knows that people use the bike paths after dark and that the gates are "basically invisible," Stowman wrote. He referred to a 2004 accident in which former Fargo police officer Kyle Olson while on bike patrol at night struck the same gate that Fineday hit.
Olson has said that he ruptured two vertebrae in the accident and has permanent leg spasms, and that he warned park officials to remove the gate.
"To think that the Fargo Park District failed to take any action after Officer Olson's accident to fix the problem - the Park District did not remove the gate, light the area, remove any pavement - is frustrating to Ms. Goodman," Stowman wrote in the e-mail.
Park District Executive Director Roger Gress said the district's insurer, the North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund, will handle any claim.
Last month, the NDIRF recommended the district remove the gate and replace an asphalt section of the bike path south of the gate with grass. Bike traffic would be rerouted on a trail to the east.
"If future bicycle riders are not concentrating on their riding hopefully all that will be involved is a fall when they ride onto the grass," wrote Ross Warner, risk services manager for the NDIRF, in a June 24 letter to the district.
And commissioners on Tuesday did just as they were advised. They voted unanimously during a park board meeting to remove the asphalt road along with the gate that Fineday struck.
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Gress noted that an NDIRF representative who surveyed the Dike East area between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m. June 11 found that even though it was cloudy, the gate was visible from 75 to 100 feet away. When a flashlight was pointed at the gate, the reflective strips on the gate "provided a high standard of reflectivity," Warner wrote in his letter.
Since the fatal accident, Gress and other park officials have stressed that the parks and trails are meant for use only from sunrise to sunset.
"We work here. This is what we do. And when someone's hurt ... when someone's killed, that's a tragedy," Gress said Tuesday.
Police have said alcohol and failing breaks on his bicycle may have been factors in Fineday's death.
An autopsy showed the cause of death was a skull fracture, most likely from the impact with the ground.
Police have not received toxicology results from the autopsy, Sgt. Jeff Skuza said Tuesday.
