$6.5 Million Verdict for Widow of Off-Duty Deputy Killed in Faulty Highway Construction Zone
A Sacramento jury awarded $6,471,242 to the widow of a 33-year-old sheriff's deputy killed while riding his motorcycle through a poorly configured highway construction zone managed by the State of California and Granite Construction, the largest wrongful-death verdict in Sacramento County at the time.
What happened
In 1998, a 33-year-old Sacramento County sheriff's deputy was riding his motorcycle to work when he entered a highway construction zone. Traffic ahead came to a sudden stop after another driver grew confused by the zone's layout. The deputy had no room to stop in time. He died at the scene, leaving behind his wife, Mechelle Jungsten, and two young children.
The State of California and general contractor Granite Construction were responsible for the zone's configuration. Attorney Roger Dreyer of what is now Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora took on the case for the widow, arguing that the defendants had set up the construction area in a way that gave drivers insufficient warning and inadequate space to stop safely.
The defense pushed back hard. They maintained that the deputy was inattentive and that his own conduct caused the crash. Before trial, the defendants offered $2 million to settle. Dreyer rejected it and proceeded to verdict.
At trial, Dreyer focused on the specific failures in how the zone was designed and signed: inadequate merge tapers, insufficient advance warning, and a layout that created foreseeable danger for anyone approaching on a motorcycle. Expert testimony supported the argument that industry standards for construction zone traffic control had not been met.
The Sacramento County jury sided with the plaintiff, awarding $6,471,242 in damages. At the time, it was the largest wrongful-death verdict ever recorded in Sacramento County. The case drew attention beyond the courtroom: according to a profile in Plaintiff Magazine, the result prompted both the California Department of Transportation and Granite Construction to review and revise how they configure highway construction zones, a practical change that extended the case's reach beyond the courtroom.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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