Jury Awards $7 Million In Fatal Crash
The California Department of Transportation, a construction contractor and a trucking company have been ordered to pay a total of $7 million resulting from a 1999 fatal crash
The California Department of Transportation, a construction contractor and a trucking company have been ordered to pay a total of $7 million resulting from a 1999 fatal crash.
The award goes to the family of Sarkis Kostanian of Glendale, Calif., who was killed on his way home from work.
Also killed in the crash was James R. Thompson, whose tanker truck flipped on a temporary S-shaped transition road in a construction zone where I-5 and U.S. 91 meet. The truck crushed Kostanian's car. Both men burned to death as flames shot 30 feet in the air, reports The Orange County Register, and the highways were paralyzed for 17 hours.
Jurors took less than two days to reach the verdict, determining that Caltrans was 53 percent responsible for the accident because of the dangerous temporary detour road. In addition to the configuration of the road, it was claimed that there were not adequate warning signs. The agency was ordered to pay $3.5 million.
The construction contractor was found 10 percent liable, and the remaining liability was split between truck driver Thompson and Advantage Tank Lines, which owned the truck.
Caltrans maintains it was not at fault; an appeal is seen as likely.
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