Martinelli v. City of Chicago

(Court opinion corrected 5/1/13.)Telecommunications employee, working with City workers on water department job, suffered amputation of leg when motorist pinned employee to bumper of truck. Accident occurred during City workers' extended lunch break, when safety provisions (such as barricading large vehicles and flagmen) were absent. Employee sued City for negligence in manner and method of conducting its construction work. City removed several layers of safety which would have prevented the accident, given eminently foreseeable inattentive conduct of motorists. Question of proximate cause is for the jury, and there is no requirement in the law that the defendant anticipate the specific acts of a driver. (EPSTEIN and PUCINSKI, concurring.)