A wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed against the Sterling Park District after 10-year-old Kaden Beer died “after falling from his bike and hitting his head at a skate park.” The incident occurred on October 1, 2017, and Beer, a “fifth-grader at Lincoln Elementary School…died 5 days later at a Peoria hospital.”
A wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed against the Sterling Park District after 10-year-old Kaden Beer died “after falling from his bike and hitting his head at a skate park.” The incident occurred on October 1, 2017, and Beer, a “fifth-grader at Lincoln Elementary School…died 5 days later at a Peoria hospital.”
The suit, filed by Beer’s family, claims the child was with his mother, Stacey Beer, and some of his friends on the day of the incident. The group was riding bikes “on the ramps at the skate park behind the Duis Recreation Center, 211 E. 23rd St. when Kaden’s wheel caught on an obstruction.” As a result, he was thrown from his bike and struck his head. The suit argues he “suffered a closed head injury that directly led to his death, as he was not wearing a helmet.”
As a result of the incident, the suit argues the “park district is guilty of willful and wanton conduct because it failed to perform any periodic inspection, maintenance and repair at the park for a number of year’s prior to Kaden’s death.” The suit states:
“Had it periodically inspected and maintained said bicycle park, [it] would have discovered that the ramping was in a state of disrepair so as to render said ramp in extremely dangerous and defective condition.”
It’s this negligence on behalf of the park that the suit claims resulted in Kaden’s untimely death. It’s important to note, however, that for a court to find the district negligent, two things have to be proved. Not only will the suit have to prove that the Sterling Park District’s negligence caused Kaden’s death, but it must prove that the “district acted willfully.”
In response to the suit, the Sterling Park District has denied any wrongdoing. District Attorney Adam Chaddock even made a motion to dismiss. The motion to dismiss “includes an affidavit from Doug Jacobs, its director of parks and planning, attesting to the fact that he inspects all park district sites regularly, and had, in fact, inspected the skate park on August 22, 2017.”
On his inspection form, Jacobs only noted “two items that needed repair, one being a section of the fence and the other a plywood panel on one of the pieces of park equipment.” Additionally, the motion also notes that “not only was Kaden not wearing a helmet, he also was not being supervised by an adult and no one saw him fall.” The motion also points out the following:
“That safety signage was posted advising that proper equipment, including helmets, must be worn; that skating and biking are high-risk activities, the park is unsupervised, that participants skate and bike at their own risk; that park users are responsible for inspecting equipment before using to make sure it is safe and hasn’t been vandalized; and that broken or damaged equipment should not be used and the park district should be notified.”
Additionally, according to the defendants, the wrongful death suit fails to “specify what exactly was the problem with the ramp, which ramp had the problem or how whatever problem may have existed caused the accident.” Because of this, the defendants argue that the suit is a matter of “speculation and conjecture that the condition of any park district property caused the fall.”
The suit was filed earlier this year and seeks damages in excess of $50,000.
Join the conversation!