Family Of Late LI Basketball Star Jo-Jo Wright To Sue

UNIONDALE, NY — Jomani "Jo-Jo" Wright was 15 years old when he was killed in January in a two-car crash at a busy intersection in Uniondale. The boy was a standout basketball player at Uniondale High School.

His family now plans to sue several government entities, claiming their failure to keep the intersection safe constituted recklessness, negligence and violated constitutional rights.

The family plans to sue Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and the New York State Department of Transportation, according to court documents obtained by Patch from Heather Palmore, the Wrights' family attorney.

The family alleges the crash occurred due to "inadequate roadway design, confusing roadway design, improper roadway design, defective roadway design; inadequate thoroughfare design, confusing thoroughfare design ... failure to study dangerous roadway conditions, failure to implement study findings to remedy or repair dangerous roadway conditions, while remedying like dangerous roadway conditions in other non-minority neighborhoods."

Greg Blower, spokesman for Town of Hempstead Supervisor Donald Clavin, told Newsday last week that "any claim that roadway maintenance [or] improvements performed by the Town of Hempstead differ from community to community on the basis of race or ethnicity is totally without merit."

The family claims the government agencies knew the intersection was dangerous: "Respondents had actual and constructive notice that the intersection was dangerous and failed to maintain the intersection in a reasonably safe manner; respondents failed to install adequate traffic control devices, signage, markings, and/or warnings, or other road indicia thereat, notwithstanding respondents knowledge from the ongoing accident history that the intersection was dangerous and one of the most dangerous intersections."

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said she plans to rename part of Uniondale Avenue after Wright, but Palmore said on behalf of the family that they plan to decline the offer "until the community is made safe."