On a snowy day in January 2004, the young, popular mayor of East Syracuse, New York, died in a horrific single-vehicle accident. Mayor Jason Rhoades was driving his SUV on Interstate 81 when he drove up a snow bank on the side of the highway - apparently created by public snow plows - and over the side of the bridge over Park Street, smashing onto the road below.

On Jan. 31, a full eight years after the fatal car accident, a state appeals court found that the state of New York is liable for Rhoades' death because its plowing operation created the dangerous condition that caused the crash.

The Supreme Court Appellate Division in Rochester reportedly sent the case back to the lower court to look at what damages the state defendant should pay to Rhoades' estate. The new trial is also to consider whether the mayor contributed in any way to the accident and, if so, how that contributing conduct would affect the damage amount.

The appellate court also noted that a similar accident happened to another driver at the same location the same weekend and that another vaulting accident had occurred on the same bridge a decade before.

The judge in the original wrongful death case had dismissed the suit against the state because, she concluded, it did not have sufficient notice to remedy the dangerous condition the plowing had created. The appellate court said the state is liable because it had created that very condition.

Source: The Post-Standard, "State liable for death of former East Syracuse mayor in I-81 snowbank crash," Jim O'Hara, Feb. 1, 2012