A Franklin County, Tenn., man says he wants $35,000 from a city employee who crashed into his motorcycle last September and drove away with the handlebar in her car door.
Jared Cullum and his attorney filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County Circuit Court earlier this month requesting a jury trial against the city of Chattanooga and Valerie Radu, the director of the city's new Family Justice Center who was suspended for 15 days after the incident.
Cullum was switching lanes on his motorcycle in the 100 block of North Market Street on Sept. 2, 2015, when an "unknown vehicle" smashed into him and drove away, the suit says.
The impact, the suit says, was "sufficient enough to dislocate the plaintiff's motorcycle handlebar...causing [Cullum] to be unable to steer."
Later that day, the suit says, Chattanooga police officers found a white Ford Taurus in the parking lot of the Police Service Center with a motorcycle handlebar lodged between the passenger door and the front fender.
They traced the Taurus back to the accident, the suit says, and realized the vehicle belonged to Radu.
At the time of her suspension, one of Mayor Andy Berke's senior advisors said Radu violated city policy by failing to immediately report the wreck. In the same letter, Berke's advisor noted that Radu had a history of wrecking city vehicles.
Days after the 2015 accident, Radu was cited for leaving the scene of a wreck and was served earlier this week with the lawsuit, according to Circuit Court clerks.
Radu and Berke's office were not immediately available today for comment.
But the suit says Radu "owed a duty of safe, careful and lawful driving to the plaintiff but breached that duty and was negligent on the date of the accident."
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow on Twitter @zackpeterson918.