Esther Nakajjigo: Trial begins for woman beheaded by metal gate in Utah National Park as family seeks $140M
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH: More than 2 years after a woman was killed in a Utah national park, her husband and her family are suing the US government for $140 million in damages. On a windy spring day in 2020, Ludovic Michaud and his newlywed wife, Esther Nakajjigo, who was an actress and singer from Uganda, were traveling through Arches National Park when Nakajjigo was decapitated by a metal gate that swung through the car's passenger door, reported New York Post.
The civil trial got underway on Monday, December 5 with opening statements from the lawyers for Michaud and Nakajjigo's family. They contend that the US Park Service neglected to maintain the gates at the parks' entrances and exits, and Nakajjigo died as a result. “She was one in a billion, Your Honor,” attorney Randi McGinn told the judge. “She had like a tremendous potential,” Michaud told the TV station of his late wife. “She could lift mountains, basically, in her own way. I don’t want this incident to reproduce itself ever again," as per the news outlet.
