A construction site wrongful death case does not always involve a worker killed on the job. Sometimes the victim is a passerby, a driver, or in this case a motorcyclist who had nothing to do with the construction project at all, but whose life was cut short because a construction crew failed to maintain the basic safety measures the law requires around a public roadway work zone. This case study walks through a wrongful death claim in which our client, a 44-year-old husband and father, was killed at an intersection sitting inside a major transit construction zone in Los Angeles, and the jury found the construction joint venture more responsible for his death than the driver who made the fatal turn.
$10M
Los Angeles jury wrongful death verdict
55%
Fault assigned to the construction joint venture
0%
Fault assigned to our client
Our client was a personal trainer, husband, and father, riding his motorcycle lawfully through the intersection of Bundy Drive and Exposition Boulevard in Los Angeles. That intersection sat inside a massive public transit construction zone, Metro's Expo Line Phase 2, one of the largest transit infrastructure projects in the city's history. A 16-year-old driver, seeing no sign prohibiting the maneuver, attempted to turn left directly across our client's path. Our client had the right of way. He had no way to anticipate a car turning into his lane where a sign warning against that exact turn should have stood.
Before construction began, a "No Left Turn" sign stood in the median at that intersection, telling drivers exactly what they needed to know. When the Skanska/Rados construction joint venture's crews moved into the area to build the Expo Line extension, that sign came down, and it was never put back. Under California's rules for temporary traffic control in construction work zones, contractors performing work on public roadways are required to maintain traffic control, including replacing signage displaced by construction activity. A contractor cannot simply remove a critical safety sign and leave an intersection more dangerous than it was before the work began.
With causation contested only through fault-shifting, the trial team kept the jury focused on the missing sign, the illegal turn, and the contractor's own documents.
The trial team, Arash Homampour together with co-counsel Karen Gajewski and Ed Baughan, built the case around the construction joint venture's own traffic control plan, using the document that specified exactly where the missing sign was supposed to be to show the jury precisely how the intersection became more dangerous than it needed to be.
At trial, the city's own traffic engineer testified under cross-examination that the traffic control plan required three signs at that location, and that one, in the median, was missing at the time of the crash.
Accident reconstruction experts used physics-based animation to show that the motorcycle was traveling roughly 35 miles per hour and the turning vehicle roughly 5 miles per hour, just over two seconds before impact, demonstrating that our client had almost no time to perceive the danger and react no matter how carefully he was riding.
The defense argued that our client shared responsibility for his own death because post-mortem toxicology found THC in his system. California law does not allow a defendant to reduce a wrongful death recovery simply because a toxicology report shows a substance in the decedent's blood. THC can remain detectable in the body for days or weeks after any impairing effect has worn off, and the defense carries the burden of proving that impairment actually caused or contributed to the crash, not merely that a substance was present.
The jury credited the missing-sign evidence and rejected the effort to blame the crash on a substance found after death.
Major infrastructure projects like a transit agency's rail extension typically involve a public agency overseeing private contractors. If a government entity is a potential defendant, California law requires a formal government claim within six months of the incident, far shorter than the standard two-year statute of limitations for wrongful death. Missing that window can permanently close off a claim against the agency, so acting quickly and identifying every possible defendant matters.
In February 2018, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury sitting in Long Beach returned a wrongful death verdict of approximately $10 million. The jury allocated 55 percent of the fault to the Skanska/Rados construction joint venture, 45 percent to the teenage driver, and zero percent to our client, rejecting the defense's attempt to blame the crash on marijuana found in his system after death. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and every case depends on its own facts and evidence. The Homampour Law Firm handles construction site wrongful death cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning no upfront cost and no fee unless a recovery is obtained.
The breakdowns below cover the Cal/OSHA and traffic control regulatory framework, retained control and the Privette doctrine, and the general contractor's duty to the traveling public.
Cal/OSHA and traffic control framework
Retained control and the Privette doctrine
General contractor duty and breach
We try catastrophic and wrongful death cases arising from public roadway work zones as counsel or co-counsel and pay statutory referral fees.
Refer a caseOur client, a 44-year-old personal trainer, husband, and father, was riding his motorcycle lawfully through an intersection sitting inside a Metro Expo Line construction zone when a 16-year-old driver attempted an illegal left turn across his path, and the "No Left Turn" sign that should have been posted in the median was missing at the time.
In February 2018, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury sitting in Long Beach returned a wrongful death verdict of approximately $10 million, allocating 55 percent of fault to the construction joint venture, 45 percent to the teenage driver, and zero percent to our client.
Yes, construction contractors performing work on public roadways are required to follow California's rules for temporary traffic control, and when a contractor removes a sign and fails to replace it, that failure can be the direct cause of a fatal crash and can result in the contractor bearing majority fault even though another driver was also negligent.
