Last Updated on January 8, 2023 by CCAR Staff
LOS ANGELES — A jury today cleared Caltrans of any wrongdoing in a 2012 freeway crash in West Covina that left a 5-year-old boy a quadriplegic and seriously injured his sister, who were riding in a minivan that was pierced by a guardrail after a tire blowout.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for less than a day before reaching its verdict in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Jeremiah Dunmore and Brionna Samuels.
Samuels, now 25, and Jeremiah, now 8, were the most seriously hurt when the tire blew out on the minivan their grandmother was driving on Aug. 18, 2012, causing the vehicle to crash atop a freeway guardrail.
Jeremiah also suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash. His sister suffered serious orthopedic injuries and scarring.
A year after the accident, Helen Dunmore, then of Ontario and now of Los Angeles, brought a neglignce lawsuit against the state Department of Transportation, commonly known as Caltrans, on behalf of her injured grandchildren.
The suit alleged an emergency shoulder curb in front of the guardrail on the westbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway near Holt Avenue was too far from the guardrail, violating a Caltrans requirement dating to 1971 that specified it be no more than two inches away.
The curb propelled the 2006 Buick Terraza on top of the guardrail, which broke and penetrated the vehicle Dunmore was driving to take her grandchildren from their Ontario home to a health fair in Los Angeles, according to her lawsuit.
Plaintiffs’ attorney John Gomez said Caltrans put the shoulder curb in its current location 30 years ago and has not made any alterations. He predicted he will be back in court again one day trying a similar lawsuit involving different people.
A member of the jury wept as she told attorneys in the hallway that the panelists thought long and hard about the case, but did not believe the placement of the curb presented a substantial risk to drivers.
Dunmore testified that the tire blowout caused her to lose control of the minivan, which veered across four lanes of the freeway about 6:30 a.m.
“I couldn’t steer,” she said. “I said, ‘Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus,’ and the next thing I knew I was out (unconscious).”
Caltrans lawyers maintained that Dunmore was negligent in maintaining and driving the vehicle. However, Dunmore said she had recently had the minivan serviced because she was planning to go to a family reunion.
Dunmore testified she is a retired bus driver and was taught to check her vehicle out thoroughly before driving it.
Dunmore also said she was driving at the same speed as other motorists. Moving any slower would have meant she would endure honks and obscene gestures from others who thought she was not traveling fast enough, she said.
Dunmore said Jeremiah was the last of her five grandchildren to become part of her family after her daughter became drug-dependent. She said she raised the quintet by herself after her husband died in 2008.
Samuels testified she lives with her fiance and that she gave birth to a son four months ago.
