This missing guardrails highway injury case began with a couple driving up Angeles Crest Highway for a hike they had planned together. On November 24, 2018, near postmile 70 on State Route 2, their car hit a patch of black ice. Without a guardrail to stop it, the vehicle rolled more than 450 feet down the mountainside. The husband died at the scene. His wife survived, but her injuries and the trauma of that day changed her life permanently.
$8M
Gross settlement reached at mediation
2016
Year Caltrans's own report recommended a guardrail here
450+ ft
Distance the vehicle rolled with no barrier to stop it
Our client and her husband were driving together to go hiking in the Angeles National Forest when their vehicle struck black ice on a curve along Angeles Crest Highway. The car left the roadway and rolled more than 450 feet down the mountainside. Her husband, 36 years old, died at the scene. Our client survived with a closed head injury, a fractured right humerus, scalp lacerations, and abrasions, and was airlifted to Pomona Valley Hospital for emergency treatment. Beyond her physical injuries, she has carried lasting psychological trauma from surviving the crash that killed her husband.
The core of this case was not simply that the road was icy. It was that Caltrans knew, specifically and in writing, that this exact stretch of highway needed a guardrail, and did not install one before the crash. A Caltrans internal report from 2016 had recommended a guardrail at this precise location. The segment had been classified as a winter closure route since 2006, meaning Caltrans's own records recognized the road's elevated risk during cold weather conditions. Two days before the crash, Caltrans had dispatched a "Storm Patrol" to the area in anticipation of freezing conditions. That patrol placed an "ICY" warning sign, but the sign was found facing the wrong way, offering no warning at all to drivers approaching from the direction our clients were traveling. No follow-up inspection occurred despite the continuing freezing temperatures in the days that followed.
With Caltrans's own records showing prior knowledge of the hazard, the firm built parallel liability and damages theories from the agency's documented failures.
We built this as a dangerous condition of public property claim against Caltrans, centered on the absence of a guardrail at a location the agency's own engineers had already identified as needing one.
The 2016 internal report recommending a guardrail at this exact spot was central evidence that Caltrans had actual notice of the dangerous condition years before the crash, paired with the winter closure classification dating back to 2006 and the mishandled Storm Patrol response two days before the incident.
For the wrongful death claim, we built the damages case under CACI 3921 and 3922, covering the loss of her husband's love, companionship, comfort, and financial support, alongside her own survival injuries and the profound psychological trauma of surviving the crash.
The pattern of an agency understanding the risk and repeatedly failing to act on it drove the resolution.
If you or a family member has been injured, or if you have lost a loved one, in a crash on a mountain highway or rural roadway without a guardrail, do not assume the icy or hazardous road conditions end the inquiry. Ask whether the state or local transportation agency responsible for that road had ever studied the location and identified a need for a guardrail or other safety barrier. Internal agency reports, safety studies, and hazard classifications can exist for years without leading to action, and when they do, they become powerful evidence of the agency's own knowledge of the risk. Claims against transportation agencies also carry strict and short filing deadlines, so early legal guidance can be essential.
This case, Los Angeles Superior Court No. 19STCV42009, settled at mediation in December 2021 before the Honorable Louis Meisinger for $8,000,000 gross. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and The Homampour Law Firm handles matters like this on a contingency fee basis, advancing the costs of the case, so families pay nothing unless there is a recovery.
The breakdowns below cover internal safety studies and notice, MASH placement standards, the standard Caltrans defenses and how they are overcome, highway engineering experts, and the design immunity defense under Government Code section 830.6.
We try catastrophic and wrongful death cases against government defendants as counsel or co-counsel and pay statutory referral fees.
Refer a caseOur clients were driving on Angeles Crest Highway near postmile 70 on November 24, 2018, when their vehicle hit black ice and rolled more than 450 feet down the mountainside due to the absence of a guardrail. The husband died at the scene, and the surviving wife suffered a closed head injury and other serious injuries.
A Caltrans internal report from 2016 had specifically recommended a guardrail at this exact location, and the segment had been classified as a winter closure route since 2006, showing Caltrans knew about the elevated risk years before the crash and failed to install the recommended barrier.
The case settled at mediation in December 2021 before the Honorable Louis Meisinger for $8,000,000 gross, following litigation against Caltrans for the dangerous condition of the highway.
