Walkup Lawyers: $12,200,000 Settlement Awarded
Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger - Brain Injury Lawyers
In Liou v. State of California, CIV 460659, Douglas S. Saeltzer and Richard H. Schoenberger successfully argued that Caltrans needs to do a better job of paying attention to pedestrian safety.
On July 1, 2010 a San Mateo County awarded $12,200,000 verdict in favor of Emily Liou, a pedestrian injured in a crosswalk at an uncontrolled intersection on State Route 82 (El Camino Real).
Caltrans has known for years that marked crosswalks at intersections without any stop lights or stop signs give pedestrians a false sense of security. Studies dating back to the 1970s have shown that placing a marked crosswalk at uncontrolled intersections often increases the pedestrian accident rate. This is especially true on wide and busy roads such as State Route 82. Discovery revealed that a marked crosswalk was placed at the subject intersection in 1960s. As time passed, and traffic on the road increased, Caltrans never once reevaluated if the subject crosswalk should be removed.
Caltrans defended the case by arguing that 90 million cars had passed through this intersection over the past ten years with very few pedestrians being injured. It argued to the jury that under its TASAS system the accident rate at the subject intersection was below acceptable thresholds. Plaintiff, however, countered that Caltrans' accident monitoriing system ignores pedestrians.
In truth, Caltrans never counted the number of pedestrians that used this crosswalk and, consequently, never determined if the pedestrian accident rate was too high. Had it done so it would have discovered that the pedestrian accident rate exceeded recommended levels by a factor of twenty. In short, Caltrans defense proved plaintiff's point. Caltrans focuses on cars, not pedestrians. The jury agreed.
Further details of the verdict can be found at www.walkupblog.com
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