Minnesota Wronful Death Lawsuit brought against county
Billy Gensmer blames Winona County for his parents’ deaths and is suing for more than $100,000.
Victor and Joyce Gensmer died Aug. 19, 2007, when their Jeep plunged into a 30-foot, flood-ravaged washout on County Road 17, and their son said the county and other agencies responding to the flood should have warned them of the hazardous road less than a mile away from their home.
Each of the defendants — Winona County, the Winona County Sheriff’s Department, the Winona County Highway Department and Highway Maintenance Superintendent Kevin Lindquist — denied negligence or legal responsibility in the Gensmers deaths, citing the flood’s record rainfall and “hundreds of 911 calls that night.”
The Gensmers tumbled into a “lethal and cavernous hole” created by raging floodwaters Aug. 19, 2007, on County Road 17 near their home in Witoka, Minn., the lawsuit claims. They were in a Jeep Cherokee, driving Joyce to work in Winona when they fell into the hole. They died at the scene.
According to witnesses, the highway washed out about 3 a.m. and a driver called 911 to report the gap. Another driver drove into the hole but survived the fall about two hours later. He, too, called 911. By 6:20 a.m., the road remained open and the Gensmers “unsuspectingly” drove in and died, the suit states.