$8.2 MILLION VERDICT AGAINST CALIFORNIA FOR SHOULDER NEGLIGENCE

Shoulders have a definite safety value and are known to prevent certain accidents. Two recent cases illustrate how agencies have been penalized for their failure to provide shoulders. $8.2 Million was awarded in California to a severly injured plantiff who charged that the state had negligently converted a shoulder into another travel lane. The plaintiff had pulled over to the extreme right of a state freeway believing the lane was a shoulder when it was actually being used for travel 7/8 of a mile to relieve traffic conjestion. It was 2:00 AM when a drunken driver failed to heed the flashing lights on the plaintiff's car and crashed into it. An expert testifying for the plaintiff noted that the state uses shoulders as lanes only during rush hour on other parts of the highway system and that traffic traveling on the opposite side of the freeway still had a limited right-hand shoulder, as well as part of the median, for emergency refuge. He also criticized the state's failure to adequately warn motorists of the conversion or provide sufficient lighting for disabled vehicles. A Louisiana case involved the family of a man killed when he failed to negotiate a curve and found no shoulder for refuge. Not only had the state allowed the shoulder to deteriorate, but both the travel lane and the shoulders were narrower than the width specified in the state's own design standards.

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  TranSafety Incorported

  9520 Lee Highway
  Fairfax, VA  United States  22031

  TranSafety Incorported

  9520 Lee Highway
  Fairfax, VA  United States  22031
• Publication Date: 1985-5

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 1
• Serial:
  • TRANSAFETY REPORTER
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: TranSafety, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0884-612X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Compliance; Design standards; Highway safety; Liability; Road shoulders; Width
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Law; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00395698
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 31 1985 12:00AM