‘They half-cheeked that job’: Spike says Seattle got off easy in $775K rebar settlement

The City of Seattle is paying $775,000 to settle a claim filed by a 67-year-old man who fractured his back in three places and suffered a serious head injury after tripping over exposed rebar in a Capitol Hill bike lane.

The man was walking around his parked car near Broadway and Harvard on Nov. 12, 2024, when he tripped on a piece of rebar protruding from the concrete, left over from a completed construction project.

The rebar had been bent down slightly with a hammer but never properly removed. Roughly $185,000 of the settlement covered past medical expenses, with the rest going toward future medical costs and pain and suffering.

Spike O’Neill, filling in for Gee Scott on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, said the city got off easy, expecting that the payout would’ve been substantially higher.

“I call that a bargain, the best I ever had,” Spike said. “I’m expecting $5 million. This guy’s got multiple back fractures, serious head injury, on a construction site that was completed. They half-cheeked that job. That’s somebody in the city’s construction division deciding to half-cheek it and just tamp this thing down instead of bringing out a grinder and cutting that rebar down to zero; it’s not that hard. It’s a five-minute job.”

Spike draws the line between wear and negligence

Spike drew a line between natural wear and negligence.

“Tree roots lift sidewalks, right? I get it. There are natural occurrences in our environment that we should be aware of,” Spike said. “But when the city has done a job and put a construction crew on the streets, subcontracted or not, and they don’t finish the job, they leave exposed rebar; that’s a dangerous situation. That’s negligence. That’s half-cheeking it. As a guy who’s fast approaching 67 than anybody else in this room, I expect an obstruction-free environment in my city.”

Ursula says she’d be calling a lawyer too

KIRO host Ursula Reutin agreed without hesitation.

“If I were that person who tripped over the rebar that was exposed on a project that was supposed to be completed and I had serious injuries, you better believe, golly wow, that I would be looking for an attorney, and I would be looking for deep pockets, and that happens to be the city,” Ursula said.

Producer warns Seattle’s settlement habit sends a costly signal

KIRO producer Andrew Lanier offered a dissenting view, arguing that not every accident should carry financial liability and that Seattle’s pattern of settling sends a signal.

“Unfortunately, in life, accidents happen, and I don’t think that there is liability for all accidents,” Andrew said. “This is an inch-and-a-half piece of rebar. If we’re going to assign financial liability for every single inch-and-a-half piece of failing infrastructure, there’s no limit to the liability.”

Andrew shared a personal story about a nonprofit serving disabled children that was sued after a young man fell from a wheelchair and died on its watch, ultimately forcing the organization to close. He said the broader consequences of lawsuits are real.

“The signposts are out for the city of Seattle that we are open for business, we are open for suing, we’re never taking a case to trial,” Andrew said.

Spike acknowledged the point but held firm.

“We’re in a litigious society, oftentimes to the detriment of our own well-being,” Spike said. “But a decision was made to tamp that down instead of cutting that off. That’s somebody looking and going, ‘That’s good enough.'”

The city attorney’s office said in a statement that it was pleased to resolve the matter and declined further comment. The exposed rebar has since been removed.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.