State Court of Appeals keeps lawsuit alive over road dust in fatal wreck

COPEMISH, Mich. (AP) -- Is a northern Michigan county responsible for road dust in a fatal wreck? The state appeals court says Manistee County can be sued over the condition of a road near Copemish. In 2010, Debra Hagerty-Kraemer apparently was blinded by dust stirred up by a passing vehicle on Litzen Road and smashed her car into a tree. She died. Manistee County says it should be immune to the lawsuit because road dust is not related to a road defect. But the appeals court disagreed, saying the dust made the road unsafe. Hagerty-Kraemer was a teenager who was driving to perform at a Mesick High School graduation when she was killed. Published: Mon, Sep 17, 2012