Photos: Utah Park sued for $270M after African Human Rights activist is decapitated by security gate

A widower plans to sue the National Park Service for more than $270 million after his wife, a celebrated Ugandan human rights activist, was decapitated by a freely swinging gate as the pair drove out of Arches National Park in Utah.

Newlyweds Esther Nakajjigo, 25, and Ludovic Michaud, 26, were leaving the park June 13 to get ice cream when the gate swung out toward their car, piercing its side 'like a hot knife through butter,' according to a wrongful-death claim obtained by NBC News. 

The 'lance-like' gate decapitated Nakajjigo and narrowly missed her husband, who was covered by her blood. '[Esther] was always willing to help,' Michaud told NBC News. 

'I was a couple of inches from dying, but I didn't, and right now I have a mission: It's to make sure what she's done continues.' Nakajjigo was a women’s rights champion in her home country of Uganda; she founded a nonprofit community health center using her college tuition money, and created two reality TV shows centered around empowering women: “a young woman influencer destined to become our society’s future Princess Diana, Philanthropist Melinda Gates, or Oprah Winfrey.” 

Having received numerous international accolades and awards, she came to the United States to further her education, where she met Michaud — a video streaming technology solution architect — via a dating app. 

They wed in a courthouse ceremony in March, and had plans to have a big ceremony in Uganda when it was safe to travel again. Instead he was left with PTSD and flashbacks of watching his wife die right beside him. 

Nakajjigo's remains were sent to Uganda in August for funeral services in her native country.

Attorney Deborah Chang said the large monetary damages being sought by Nakajjigo’s widower and her parents reflect the pain and suffering, as well as the loss of her future income and fundraising abilities. 

As part of the claim, Chang claims the federal government were aware of the danger park gates posed, as a camper was fatally impaled by one in California in 1980.