MILWAUKEE (CN) - A widow from Rhode Island filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the city of Milwaukee and several of its contractors, three years after her husband died while crossing a drawbridge due to faulty CCTV cameras used for remote operation.

On Aug. 15, 2022, Richard and Rose-Marie Dujardin were visiting Milwaukee from Rhode Island for a Catholic Financial Life convention. On the day of her husband's death, the pair left their Hilton hotel to attend mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church.

Richard Dujardin was 71 years old and hard of hearing, so he didn't notice when the barricades dropped and the siren sounded. When the bridge started to rise, he was unable to make it across and fell 20 feet to his death.

On Tuesday, two days after the third anniversary of her husband's death, Rose-Marie Dujardin filed a wrongful death civil suit against the city of Milwaukee and the contractors, subcontractors and consultants involved in the 2007 remodel of the Kilbourn Avenue Bridge.

In her 21-page complaint, Rose-Marie Dujardin details how CCTV cameras used by the off-site bridge operator to ensure the area is clear before raising it were negligently chosen and installed by unqualified contractors from companies hired by the city to redesign and inspect the bridge.

Specifically, she claims consultants from Bloom Companies LLC and HNTB Corporation knew or should have known the CCTV camera model and placement they signed off on would not provide adequate visibility for the remote operator.

This, Rose-Marie Dujardin says in the complaint, directly caused Richard Dujardin's death and is grounds for punitive damages.

Rose-Marie Dujardin's attorney, Jay A. Urban of Urban & Taylor, says the complaint was a long time coming due to the sheer amount of evidence collection required to piece together what went wrong on the drawbridge in 2022.

Rather than place the cameras on the bridge turrets designed for viewing of the pedestrian, vehicle and boat traffic around the bridge, the consulting companies instructed that the cameras be placed on east- and west-facing utility poles, according to Rose-Marie Dujardin.

She added that neither the consultants nor the city of Milwaukee engaged an audiovisual technology professional regarding the CCTV cameras, which Urban says no member of the design team had experience or training to do themselves.

At the time of the incident, bridge operator Dante Hamilton told police he couldn't see Richard Dujardin because he was wearing a dark-colored suit that was difficult to discern in the afternoon light and the camera angle, which did not give a clear view.

Rose-Marie Dujardin claims in the complaint that operators have had this trouble since 2007 in addition to long lagging, freezing frames, shadows obscuring pedestrians and blurriness.

This, she says, is the direct result of the consultant's orders to the contractor on the model and placement of the cameras despite their lack of expertise on the matter. The consultants together were paid over $1 million for the renovation of the Kilbourn Avenue Bridge, according to court documents.

According to his wife, Richard Dujardin hung onto the side of the bridge for his life as it rose to a 90-degree angle but could only hold on for a few minutes. He was conscious until he hit the cement below.

His wife had made it to the other side already, as she was going faster, doing exercises while they walked. She shouted at him to turn around and go back rather than try to rush toward her, but it was too late.

In addition to the wrongful death claim, she makes a survivorship claim and a bystander emotional distress claim in her own capacity.

No criminal charges were filed after the incident, but Rose-Marie Dujardin says in her complaint that the city replaced the cameras after her husband's death.

The city could not be reached at the time of filing about whether it had replaced the cameras and where they are currently located at the bridge site.

Richard Dujardin was a retired journalist with The Providence Journal. He left behind his wife, six adult children and 12 grandchildren.

Source: Courthouse News Service