DaytonDailyNews.com

XENIA — The widow of the Beavercreek father who spent months at the bedside of his wounded son is suing the city of Beavercreek and the state for allegedly hazardous road conditions that caused the father's death.

Rand Biggers, 59, was killed June 27, 2006, when the car driven by 51-year-old Doris Naone of Riverside hit a mound at the interchange of Interstate 675 and U.S. 35, went airborne and crashed onto the top of Biggers' Jeep. Both were killed.

Biggers had spent months at a hospital with his son, Army Spc. Ethan Biggers, who was shot through the head by a sniper on March 5, 2006, while serving in Iraq.

Ethan died in February 2007 after his family, including twin brother Matt, chose to have his feeding tube removed.

The elder Biggers, a Vietnam veteran, had taken leave from his job as a physicist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to be with Ethan.

He had just returned home from the hospital in Florida when he was killed in the double-fatal crash.

The lawsuit filed July 21 in Greene County Common Pleas Court by Cheryl Biggers alleges that the city of Beavercreek was partly responsible for maintaining the roadway that led to Biggers' death, which the lawsuit calls wrongful.

The same claims are in a separate suit filed in the Ohio Court of Claims against the Ohio Department of Transportation. That court has jurisdiction over legal actions against state agencies.

"The contention is there is joint responsibility for the maintenance of that roadway and to provide access without dangerous conditions," said David Deutsch, attorney for Cheryl Biggers.

The lawsuit cites three other traffic accidents that involved the mound near the interchange ramps that occurred before Biggers' death.

Beavercreek City Manager Michael Cornell and City Attorney Stephen McHugh could not be reached for comment.