NJDOT Will Pay a Motorcyclist $1.1 Million to Settle a Lawsuit Over ‘Faulty Expansion Joints’

A $1.125 million settlement was reached in a Middlesex County suit, Obando v. New Jersey Dept. of Transportation, on Sept. 20 between the state and a 42-year-old off-duty police officer after he was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash allegedly caused by faulty expansion joints on Route 130 in Cranbury.

On Aug. 23, 2018, Alexander Obando was riding his motorcycle when he lost control, hit a curb, and was ejected. At the time of the accident, Obando was a police officer in the township of North Brunswick and missed nine months of work due to his injuries, said his lawyer, Peter Chamas of Gill & Chamas in Woodbridge.

Obando was traveling northbound on Route 130, where he alleged the road was constructed from Portland cement concrete with construction joints approximately every 80 feet. Obando alleged that the joints had deteriorated due to freezing and thawing, and that between 2011 and 2018, NJDOT had repaired the pavement by spot patching with asphalt, which had loosened over time, according to Chamas.

Read the source article at Law.com