Recently, a disastrous accident took place. A young man was riding his motorcycle in the local area of Chula Vista. He was struck by a car that pulled out and made a left turn in front of him. His motorcycle struck the car and he was killed. Now, the family of this man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
The lawsuit is claiming that this man’s death could have been prevented if the city had taken action more quickly. The lawsuit is saying that the city knew this intersection was dangerous and was in the process of taking steps to make it safer; however, the process had taken four years to simply install a traffic light at the intersection. The intersection in question is at Broadway and F Street. If there was a traffic light at the intersection on that fateful day, this accident could have been avoided because the car would not have been able to make an unprotected left turn while the motorcycle was approaching the intersection.
In the court documents, the plaintiff is alleging that the city knew how dangerous this intersection was without a traffic light. In 2015, the city had applied for a grant to make safety improvements at the intersection, such as a traffic light. Chula Vista then received the grant funding later that year. They even allocated more than $500,000 to modify the intersection and make the left turn a protected one. The hope is that this could prevent accidents from taking place, such as the one in question.
Sadly, the project was not completed for almost four years. Right now, it is unclear why the project took so long to finish. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are claiming that the city had a duty to ensure that the intersection was safe for everyone including pedestrians, motor vehicle drivers, and bicyclists. Because the city failed to do this, a young man lost his life when his motorcycle struck a car making an unprotected left turn into oncoming traffic.
In the application that the city filed for the grant, they noted that in a ten-year period, there had been more than 40 collisions that had taken place at the intersection. The city wanted to add traffic lights at all our approaches to the intersection. The project was estimated to be completed in the summer of 2018; however, the project was delayed by a year.
The family is requesting coverage from the city for medical expenses and lost wages. It will be interesting to see how this lawsuit unfolds. This case serves to highlight how a tragedy involving a local family could have been avoided with a safer intersection.
