The family of a man who was killed after a falling tree branch hit him in the head as he was riding a motorbike is suing Montgomery County for $6 million, saying the county was negligent in its job to trim the dead branch.
Colenester Jones was riding his motorbike on West Old Baltimore Road last summer in Boyds when a 19-foot tree branch fell on his head, his attorney said. He was 48 years old.
Witnesses said the branch fell with no warning, knocked Jones off his motorbike and landed on top of him, according to police. He was transported to a nearby hospital where he died two days later, police said.
Jones’ family is suing because the accident could have been prevented and the county needs to be held accountable, their attorney Benjamin Klopman said.
“The county should have maintained the road,” Klopman said.
The branch fell from a tree that was clearly dead, Klopman said, and the county “had performed maintenance work on nearby trees shortly before” the accident.
Klopman doesn’t know whether the county inspected the branch that hit Jones before the accident, but said it should have and was obligated to warn drivers of the dangers posed by the dead trees.
He said the road is still lined by a number of dead trees that continue to present a hazard to drivers on what he calls a “well-traveled” road.
The attorney representing the county could not be reached for comment.
In June a Chevy Chase woman and her 7-year-old daughter were killed when a thunderstorm caused a massive branch to fall on top of their minivan.
Kelly Murray, 40, was driving her children and their friends home from a swim meet on Connecticut Avenue when the branch fell. The tree had no outward signs of rot or disease, according to the State Highway Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining trees off Connecticut Avenue.
