https://www.q13fox.com/news/island-coun ... iery-crash

"The roads were icy and the county did nothing!!! So I crashed!"
$16 million.

Guy who saved her: $500k

There's often more to it than that. In a situation like this there's a good chance that the city knew that particular spot was more hazardous than normal and simply didn't do anything. It may even be that there was some defect in the city road that caused it to be more hazardous. I'm not saying that's necessarily the case, but jumping to conclusions without knowing the facts isn't a great strategy.

Bull shit she should have been convicted of two counts of vehicular homicide. She chose to drive in that weather.....the city did not make her.

Crappy article leads to crappy conclusions

I'd like to know more before passing judgement

Word.

I think if someone ventures out driving in Weather like that, they have to know the risk though.

And "fiery crash" implies she had some considerable speed in some pretty shitty weather.

Here’s an article with a bit more details on what the lawsuit is about.

Still unclear on why the Good Samaritan got 500k...

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/island-c ... ery-crash/

Mini vans aren’t known for great handling either. I’m of the mind she should’ve known the conditions she was facing and drove accordingly. But I wasn’t there.

Agreed

Hard to pass judgement given limited information. Even if she was just driving too fast I would not wish her the outcome that she got

That being said... the articles pointed out that this was a 'know problem' that the county didn't address. Thinking out loud here: It's an island, how long does it take for word to get around?

A speed limit is the upper end of what's allowed, conditions may dictate otherwise

I'm not going to read the article. But I will say this, juries award based on emotion. I've been involved in several lawsuits and two things make a cha-ching sound. Small children without a parent and dead kids.

If a someone/entity is self-insured, they'll generally pay. If they have a liable insurer the awards will often get reduced on appeal.

Washington state has something known as "joint and several liability." Essentially, several defendants can be named in lawsuits, and if any of the defendants can't pay their share of the responsibility, the remaining defendants are on the hook for the full amount.

I work for a large state agency that deals with highways. (No bonus points for guessing which one.) Plaintiffs will file suit against the agency all the time. Most of these are nuisance suits in which case it's cheaper to settle than to go to court. There is usually a third party in the suit as well, and they generally have little to no assets to claim against. In most cases that go to trial, the state is determined to be at fault in some minor capacity. Like less than 10%. However, the primary party responsible doesn't have any money, so the state is stuck with the full claim.

Plaintiff's lawyers have expert witnesses who know the engineering requirements forwards and backwards. Juries see the state as a big cash-cow with unlimited money. Plaintiff plays the sympathy card, and money gets awarded.

I can think of several instances in years past where this was the case. One was a situation where a 12 year old was hit and killed running across the interstate. Mother sued claiming the whole in the fence adjacent to the freeway wasn't fixed in a timely manner. Never mind that she didn't teach the kid to not play in traffic. Another case was in eastern WA, where a drunk went through a guardrail, down a gully and died in the crash. Plaintiff's expert testified that the guardrail height didn't meet standards due to repaving of the roadway and slippage of the hillside adjacent to the road. I think the height was 2" below standard. Never mind that the speed the vehicle was going and the angle would have gone right through the guardrail, regardless of height. There was another case where a driver waiting at a ramp meter was hit and killed by an inattentive driver. Plaintiff's lawyers argued that the shadow of the overpass over the ramp meter queue obscured the visibility of the queue location. Never mind that the inattentive driver was driving too fast, and play with their phone.

Thanks to joint and several liability, your tax dollars paid for all of these, and more.

$10 million for these kids:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... 0-million/