The parents of Kimberly Anne Downes are suing the California Department of Transportation for wrongful death. Downes, a 22-year-old Costa Mesa resident, sustained fatal injuries on February 13, 2009 in Diamond Bar on SR-60.
Downes, whose vehicle had overturned in the high-occupancy vehicle lane, was fatally struck after she got out of her vehicle. Drivers Holly Ann Lee and Victoriana Vazquez are also defendants in the Diamond Bar car crash lawsuit. Lee struck Downes's car after it overturned while Vazques struck the 22-year-old.
Downes' parents, Myung Sun Kim and James R. Downes, are accusing Caltrans of failing to meet its obligation to provide a safe public roadway. They say the lighting on the HOV lane was not activated at 3:30am--the approximate time when the deadly Los Angeles car accident happened. The plaintiffs say that Caltrans failed to conduct routine inspections of the lighting on the Pomona Freeway and failed to warn motorists about the fact that the excessively dark conditions could prove dangerous.
Their Los Angeles County wrongful death complaint contends that poor line-of-sight visibility due to an overpass and the darkness prevented the other two drivers from avoiding their daughter's car accident site. The plaintiffs are accusing Lee of drunk driving, driving at an unsafe speed, and reckless and careless operation of her vehicle. They say that Vazquez was driving at an unusually fast speed.
Caltrans Claims and Lawsuits
Caltrans is tasked with designing, planning, building, repairing, overseeing, and maintaining all of California's freeways and highways. This means that if any hazardous condition on one of these roads contributes to causing an Orange County, California car accident, a Riverside County truck crash, a San Bernardino County motorcycle collision, or a Los Angeles County pedestrian accident and Caltrans had constructive or actual notice that would have allowed for it to take preventive measures before the traffic collision happened, the injured party and his or her family may have grounds for filing a California injury lawsuit.
Pomona Freeway crash victim identified, LA Times, February 13, 2009
Related Web Resources:
California Department of Transportation
