Suit filed in city worker's ice-storm death

You probably heard about Jerry Hines Jr., the city of Houston employee who was killed trying to help motorists on a Highway 59 entrance ramp during Wednesday's ice storm. But now there's a new development: Yesterday, Hines' family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a driver who they say caused the traffic accident that ended in Hines' death.

The accident happened at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday on Highway 59 in Humble. Hines and another road-crew employee were in a dump truck when they noticed a car that had spun out of control on an elevated ramp covered with ice. They helped move the car and another disabled vehicle out of the way, and then Hines went to the top of the ramp to stop traffic while the other worker sanded the roadway. He stopped three cars and was talking with one of the drivers when a silver Nissan crashed into the rear car, a Volkswagen Jetta, knocking Hines over the railing. He fell 28 feet to his death. According to Humble accident investigator Jack Burt, Hines "started waving his arms at the driver of the Nissan to try to get her stop. But when she applied her brakes, they locked and she skidded into a retaining wall and then bounced into the Jetta."

The Nissan driver, Kingwood accountant Samantha Gordon, is the one being sued; she told police Wednesday that she wasn't speeding and simply lost control of her car on the icy road. But that doesn't get her off the hook, said Terry Bryant, the Hines family attorney: "Certainly, the thing she should have known is that we had icy conditions that had been broadcast on the news for a number of days." Humble police have issued no citations so far in connection with the accident.