CHARLESTON – A Kanawha County woman and her husband are suing a St. Albans shopping center and businesses after they claim she was injured when a vehicle struck her while she was walking through a crosswalk.
Kroger, St. Albans Center II LLC, RD Management LLC, CVS 6306 WV LLC and unknown individuals were named as defendants in the suit.
On Jan. 27, Brenda Carter was a patron of the St. Albans Shopping Center and was returning to her vehicle when she entered a crosswalk on the parking lot's perimeter road passing in front of Kroger and/or CVS, according to a complaint filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Carter claims while walking in the crosswalk, Robert Lovejoy, another patron, backed partially out of a diagonal spot in his 2002 Nissan Pathfinder, then pulled forward and sharply to the left, onto the perimeter road passing in front of Kroger and/or CVS, striking her.
The plaintiff suffered serious and permanent injuries as a result of the vehicle-pedestrian collision, according to the suit.
Carter claims the defendants owed a duty to Carter to take effective means so as to mitigate conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians and breached that duty by encouraging the use of the parking lot's perimeter road as the main entrance and exit to the parking lot.
The defendants failed to control volume and speed of traffic by design of the parking lot and control of the perimeter road so as to reduce the number and severity of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts.
Carter claims the defendants implemented confusing and/or misleading traffic control measures, which increased the likelihood and severity of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts.
Carter and her husband, Ken Carter, are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. They are being represented by Mark A. Hunt and Scott Caudill of Mark A. Hunt & Associates PLLC.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 15-C-1000