Is a northern Michigan county responsible for road dust in a fatal wreck?

The state appeals court says Manistee County can be sued over the condition of a road near Copemish. In 2010, Debra Hagerty-Kraemer apparently was blinded by dust stirred up by a passing vehicle on Litzen Road and smashed her car into a tree. She died.

Manistee County says it should be immune to the lawsuit because road dust is not related to a road defect. But the appeals court disagreed, saying the dust made the road unsafe.

Hagerty-Kraemer was a teenager who was driving to perform at a Mesick (ME-sick) High School graduation when she was killed.