OKLAHOMA CITY — A lawsuit filed by a 59-year-old Tulsa woman who trespassed on state Transportation Department property and fell into a hole while riding a bicycle in a restricted highway system drainage area late at night has been dismissed.
Mildred Greer, aka Mildred Ann Bell and Babe Bell, was riding a bicycle after midnight Aug. 19, 2018, when she fell into an unmarked, open rectangular hole along U.S. Highway 75 near Lewis and Apache in Tulsa and was injured.
“This particular hole was uncovered and not visible” until Greer was “immediately upon it,” she claimed in her lawsuit petition.
However, Greer “admitted she had been through this area before, as it is a shortcut,” Tulsa County District Judge Kelly M. Greenough pointed out.
Furthermore, the state Court of Civil Appeals said Greer and a friend walked through “a rough grassy area with weeds and small bushes,” climbed over a 56-inch-tall chain-link fence laced with trees and hedges and topped with barbed wire, passed through another rough grassy area, climbed a “large and uneven steep hill,” crossed two northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 75, stepped over a 37-inch-high cable barrier and then a 27-inch metal barrier, crossed two southbound lanes of the highway and walked through yet another rough grassy area “in order to ride her bicycle…”
The drainage hole is in an area “not intended for bicycle or pedestrian traffic,” the appellate court deadpanned.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has not posted warning signs on or around the grassy area, but Greer and her friend are not “employees, agents or invitees” of ODOT, the judges noted.
Greenough dismissed Greer’s lawsuit Sept. 20, 2022, and the state Court of Civil Appeals upheld that ruling March 29.
In a footnote, the Civil Appeals Court wrote that Greer has a criminal record which includes multiple misdemeanor and felony convictions for drug use, forgery, possession of a credit card belonging to someone else and receiving stolen property.
Her 54-year-old friend also has a criminal record that includes multiple convictions for falsely impersonating other individuals, failure to pay state taxes, altering a motor vehicle license plate and drug possession.
“He left the scene prior to arrival of emergency rescue services,” the appeals court wrote.