HOLMES BEACH, Fla. (WFTS) — Clutching onto special memories, Deborah Trotter couldn't hold back her tears at the memorial site for her mother Evelyn.
"She just was so happy to be here and the fact that she'll never be here in person with me to enjoy it again is.... I still have trouble understanding that. I'm never going to understand why she was killed," she said.
Trotter made a tearful return to an intersection that brings her so much heart ache.
In May, her mother, Miriam, came down to visit her at Ana Maria Island.
"She loved coming for long visits here on the island. She loved watching sunsets with us, sitting on the beach with us," her daughter said.
While out for a stroll, Miriam pushed the button to cross the intersection in the northbound direction on the east side of Marina Drive. She stepped into the crosswalk when the sign gave her the okay. That was just as a car was turning. Trotter was hit, and later died from a brain injury in the hospital.
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"Even when you do that right thing, sometimes when others do the wrong thing, there's a tragedy and it impacts you. I don't want that to happen to anyone else and I know my mom wouldn't either," Deborah said.
That's why in December, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit takes aim at C², the construction company working along the intersection when Trotter was fatally hit.
The lawsuit reads:
"The negligent design, construction, supervision, and approval of the maintenance of traffic plan and traffic signals for the area of Gulf Drive and Marina Drive, particularly as to pedestrians forced to negotiate their way through the construction zone, created a highly dangerous, but easily preventable trap for both pedestrians and the motoring public. But for this dangerous and preventable condition, the fatal collision between would never have occurred."
Attorney Douglas McCarron shared pictures from the crash scene, including one showing the sidewalk closed sign lying down and not visible from across the crosswalk.
"We do know that right after the incident, the police at least acknowledged and they understood that there was a problem with the signalization. And they put hoods, and they closed that crosswalk down until they got it fixed, which is the whole point, it shouldn't have been opened in the first place," McCarron said.
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Now her family hopes this lawsuit can save another family that same heartache and pain.
"Hopefully, since this did happen, it will be an awakening for contractors and visitors to the Island," Deborah Trotter said.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial to determine if the family receives $50,000 in damages.
We reached out to C² to get their side of the story by phone and email. As soon as we hear back from them, we'll bring you that update.
Trotter Complaint by ABC Action News on Scribd
