Family of Seattle cyclist killed by dump truck settles lawsuit

The family of a 19-year-old man, whose death on a Seattle street in 2007 triggered a community outpouring for better bike-safety measures, has settled a lawsuit against the company that owned the dump truck that crushed him.

The parents of Bryce Lewis, Marc and Laura Paolicelli of Colorado, have agreed to an undisclosed sum of money from Nelson & Sons Construction of Woodinville, said the family's attorney, John Christensen of Tacoma.

"Nelson & Sons stepped forward and did the right thing and the family was satisfied by their gestures," Christensen said Tuesday.

An attorney for Nelson & Sons could not be reached for comment.

Lewis was riding with friend Caleb Hall in a bike lane on Eastlake Avenue East near the University Bridge in September 2007 when a Nelson & Sons dump truck driven by David McClane made a sudden right turn into the young men at Fuhrman Avenue East

Hall banged on the side of the truck and yelled for McClane to stop, but Lewis was pulled under the truck and was killed. McClane, apparently unaware that he had hit the men, kept driving a short distance down Fuhrman before stopping.

Hall, who had recently moved to Seattle with Lewis from Colorado to attend college, was not seriously hurt.

A couple of months after the accident, scores of bicyclists mounted a wheeled demonstration through the streets of Seattle to remember Lewis and to call on the city to do more about bike safety, particularly in the Eastlake neighborhood.

Most said they had not known Lewis but felt a common bond as bicyclists

"When a cyclist gets hit, we all feel the pain," one of them said at the time.

Christensen said today that the lawsuit and its settlement should also send a message to bikers, drivers and government officials.

"Sharing the road with bicyclists is part of living in the Northwest," he said. "The more cyclists and vehicles can look out for each other, the safer we'll be."

Christensen's law firm, Messina Bulzomi Christensen, earlier this month settled another bicycle-related lawsuit against King County for $3.5 million. In that case, a 31-year-old bicyclist, Jeffrey Totten, hit a poorly maintained depression along Novelty Hill Road east of Redmond in 2006 and suffered a debilitating brain injury.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com