The family of a Ugandan woman killed in a national park in Utah by a metal gate is seeking $140 million in damages more than two years after the tragic incident.

Ludovic Michaud and Esther Nakajjigo had just gotten married when they decided to take a nature drive. They went to the Arches National Park in Utah in 2020, where tragedy struck. The day was windy, and a metal gate in the park got whipped off its hinges and sliced through the passenger door of their car where Nakajjigo was seated. The gate decapitated the 25-year-old Ugandan woman, and she died immediately. 

Michaud and Nakajjigo’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the US government, arguing that the National Park Service was negligent because they did not properly maintain the entrance and exit gates of the park, which is the reason Nakajjigo died.

Speaking to reporters, Michaud said he did not want a repeat of the tragedy and did not wish the tragedy on another family.

During Monday’s trial, lawyers representing Michaud and his wife’s family gave their emotional opening statements recounting the moment the man realized his wife had died. The attorneys said the family was suing the government for $140 million, calculated based on Nakajjigo’s earning potential.

The lawsuit argues that when the government opened national parks in 2020 after COVID-19 restrictions, rangers at the Arches National Park did not bother to secure the gate. The effect was that the gate turned into a deadly spear that got unhinged and went through the side of Michaud’s car, beheading his wife.

Attorneys representing the US government did not deny that the park was at fault, but they argued the amount the family was seeking was too high and questioned the way they had calculated the damages. The attorneys said that the family’s claim that Nakajjigo was on track to become the CEO of a nonprofit was too speculative and could not be used to calculate the damages.

Jeffrey Nelson, Assistant US Attorney, said that no one knows what Nakajjigo’s plans were.

Randi McGinn, the attorney representing Nakajjigo’s husband and her family, argued in the lawsuit that an $8 padlock could have prevented the whole tragedy and accused the park of violating regulations.

McGinn chose to focus on Nakajjigo’s work in the NGO world and her earning potential, saying that if she had not died, her trajectory suggested that she would have become the CEO of an NGO. He said she would have been earning an annual salary ranging from hundreds of thousands or even millions.

He said the 25-year-old woman was a prominent women’s activist in Uganda, and had become the host of a Ugandan reality show focused on women’s empowerment, health care, and education. Nakajjigo had previously worked on a fundraising campaign for a hospital in Kampala and immigrated to the US and went to the Watson Institute for Emerging Leaders.

The government’s attorneys argued that appropriate compensation was $3.5 million, not the $140 million the family was asking for.