Family of woman decapitated by metal gate at Utah national park sue for $140million

The trial of a woman who was decapitated by a metal gate in a Utah National Park began Monday, with her family seeking $140 million in damages and accusing rangers of negligence.

Esther Nakajjigo, 25, was killed on a windy summer day in 2020 when a piece of a metal gate in Utah’s Arches National Park broke through the passenger door and decapitated her, and now her husband, Ludovic Michaud, is demanding justice.

Michaud was driving out of the park with his newlywed wife Nakajjigo to go buy ice cream when she died. The devastated widower joined his family in suing the US Park Service for failing to maintain the park gates.

The ‘spear-shaped’ door killed Nakajjigo and narrowly missed her husband, who was covered in her blood.

At the initial trial, a lawyer representing Nakajigo claimed that she had a bright future as a women’s rights activist and would have made hundreds of thousands of dollars if she had not died.

Nakajjigo and Michaud were going through the gates when the accident happened. Pictured: The gates that led to Nakajjigo’s death

A piece of the metal door broke off and went through the passenger door where Nakajjigo was sitting. In the image: the car in which the newlyweds were traveling.

The stop sign from the gate had also flown into the car.

The metal seemed to have torn out this post.

The couple had just gotten married when they took a trip to the national park.

Lawyers for the United States did not deny that park officials took the blame, but argued that the amount the family should be awarded is much less and questioned the ways in which the damages sought were calculated.

In opening remarks Monday in Salt Lake City, attorneys representing the family of Michaud and Nakajjigo said they were seeking $140 million in damages from the government.

The family’s lawsuit claims when national parks reopened in April 2020 after being closed due to COVID-19, rangers at the Utah national park. did not ensure the door in place, which in effect “turned a metal tube into a spear that pierced the side of a car, decapitating and killing Esther Nakajjigo.”

Attorney Randi McGinn, who represents Nakajjigo’s family, described the death in gruesome detail Monday. After asking the family to leave the courtroom, he recounted the moment Michaud realized his wife had been murdered, when he inhaled the coppery scent of blood, turned to find out what it was, and saw that she was dead.

The opening statements anticipated how the trial will rely less on various versions of the accident and will instead focus on Nakajiigo’s biography and earning potential, which is used to calculate a portion of the damages.

Attorney Randi McGinn represents Nakajjigo’s family in the lawsuit.

McGinn said that if her life had not been interrupted, Nakajjigo’s trajectory suggested she would have become a nonprofit CEO who could eventually have earned an annual net income of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.

She described Nakajjigo as a prominent women’s rights activist who rose from poverty to become the host of a solutions-oriented reality television series in Uganda focused on empowering women on issues such as education and care. medical.

Nakajjigo worked on fundraising to open a hospital in a deprived part of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, became a celebrity philanthropic, and immigrated to the United States for a fellowship at the Boulder-based Watson Institute for Emerging Leaders. , Colorado.

She and her husband were married just a few months before her tragic death.

They had plans to hold a wedding ceremony with Nakajjigo’s family in Uganda, but the fateful visit to Arches National Park intervened.

Michaud loved the park and its giant sandstone arches, weathered by the wind but apparently carved by the hand of a sculptor. He was excited to show it to his wife.

Nakajjigo was described as a prominent women’s rights activist who rose out of poverty.

The claim related to Nakajjigo’s death states that if the park service workers had simply padlocked the gate, his car would never have been released and punctured.

Nakajjigo, at 17, was named Uganda’s ambassador for women and girls after she used her college tuition money to found a nonprofit community health center.

She later gained acclaim for projects like Saving Innocence Challenge, a reality show that provided education and funded businesses for hundreds of girls on the island of Lake Victoria.

Her family’s lawyer argued that she would have become the executive director of a non-profit organization.

Delicate Arch seen in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah

Michaud launched a lawsuit against the US Park Service following the death of his wife.

Defense lawyers said that claims by family attorneys that Nakajjigo, who was 25 at the time of her death, was on track to become a nonprofit CEO shortly, were too speculative to be used. as the basis for compensation.

“We don’t know with any level of certainty what his plans were,” said Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Nelson.

Nelson, the government attorney, said an appropriate award would be $3.5 million, far less than the $140 million being sought. He said that he did not deny that Nakajjigo was an extraordinary person, but argued that it was difficult to speculate what kind of work he would have done. He noted that she had recently worked as a hostess at a restaurant at the time of her death and she did not have a bachelor’s degree.

Arches National Park is a 120-square-mile desert landscape near Moab, Utah that is visited by more than 1.5 million people a year.

It is known for a series of sculpture-like fins and arches made of orange sandstone that has been eroded by wind and water over the centuries.