Teen Pedestrian Hit in Dimly Lit Kitsap County Crosswalk Receives $5.1 Million in Trial Settlements
After trial: The case settled during trial, so there was no verdict or appeal. We could not confirm the dates the payments were made.
Won by Friedman Rubin.
A 17-year-old girl was struck in a marked crosswalk near Olympic High School in Kitsap County, Washington, in December 2012. During the fourth week of trial in February 2017, Kitsap County and the driver settled her claims, and the county agreed to add a second streetlight. Her award totaled $5.1 million, and her 15-year-old brother, who witnessed the crash, received a separate $600,000 settlement.
What happened
At about 7:14 on the morning of December 12, 2012, a 17-year-old girl was crossing Central Valley Road at Conifer Drive, a marked school-zone crosswalk near Olympic High School outside Bremerton, Washington. A southbound driver struck her in the crosswalk and ran her over. Her 15-year-old brother was with her and saw it happen.
The girl's hair became caught in the vehicle's drivetrain, and her scalp was torn away (a degloving injury). She also suffered sacral, pelvic and rib fractures, a degloved foot, bruised lungs and a brain injury that left lasting psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress and panic attacks. Her brother was not physically hurt, but he developed post-traumatic stress from watching the collision.
Both children were minors when the crash happened, and both are unnamed here. The family sued the driver and Kitsap County in Pierce County Superior Court on February 25, 2015. The claim against the county was that it maintained a crosswalk with inadequate lighting despite an earlier pedestrian crash there: another girl had been struck at the same crossing in January 2009, at nearly the same time of morning. The existing streetlight sat in a position that backlit southbound pedestrians, turning them into silhouettes that were hard for approaching drivers to see.
Trial began on January 12, 2017, before Judge G. Helen Whitener. Kenneth Friedman and Henry Jones of Friedman Rubin represented the family, with T. David Apodaca. In his opening statement Friedman told jurors that a county that creates and maintains an unsafe, poorly lit crosswalk where a child is hit is negligent. Kitsap County was defended by deputy prosecutors, and the driver by separate counsel.
The case settled on February 14, 2017, after about four weeks of trial. Kitsap County agreed to pay the girl $5 million, and the driver paid her another $100,000, for $5.1 million in all. Her brother received $500,000 from the county and $100,000 from the driver, $600,000 together, bringing the combined settlements to $5.7 million. As part of the agreement the county also committed to install an additional streetlight at the crosswalk within three months.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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