Now, after losing the lawsuit the family is being saddled with a huge bill to pay for Caltrans' legal fees:
Lori and Chris Coble, the parents of three young children killed in a fiery crash on the I-5 three years ago, have been ordered to pay Caltrans almost $292,000 in fees and costs after losing a wrongful death lawsuit against the state agency on July 14.Because Caltrans wasn't at fault. And neither were the taxpayers that would have to pay for any judgment against Caltrans. The inattentive truck driver who crashed into their car was at fault, but their legal team apparently didn't want to go after him because he didn't have deep pockets. It was either a strategic error or legal malpractice from the start, and now will be a very costly mistake. And it didn't have to happen.
An amendment to the Orange County Superior Court jury verdict was filed on Thursday, stating the Cobles and Lori Coble's mother Cindy Maestri must pay Caltrans "costs and disbursements in the amount of $291,534.04."
"We just found out last night from our attorney," Chris Coble said on Friday. "Our attorney will appeal the decision. The fact that we lost impacted us greatly. Everyone who drives that road knows how dangerous it is. Caltrans is unwilling to take any credit for what happened."
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5 comments:
Sad to know Caltrans actually used the Coble Family tradegy to their advantage to get awarded the widening project at Oso.
Shortly after the accident and with the use of compiled fatalities/accident/incident static data for this area (with great focus on the Coble Family), Caltrans got approved to conduct a swift 1.2 million traffic study, THEN got awarded the 12 million dollar widening project to improve this area, which included the 5 Frwy/Oso (a shotty improvement at best). YES, OSO... which has been a recognized problem and sat on for years... 3 years too late for this family... and the State of CA gave their own people jobs using this families tradegy as an example - the irony of it all!!
Let's not forget...
The congestion on the 5 at Oso, a 4 laned frwy with a carpool lane which uses the #4 lane as an off-ramp. An archaic design from 30+ years ago, superceded and unable to accomondate the rapid growth to this area from ALL the planned communities built over the last 10 years. As for money, the money collected from all the taxpayers/homeowners in this area in Mello Roos taxes to use for things such as... roadway improvemnts... really??
Thousands of new homes and vehicles to the south OC in the last 10 years...
To the west: Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Wood Canyon
To the east: RSM, Trabuco Canyon, Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza, Las Flores, Ladera Ranch, Dove Canyon, Robinson Ranch, Wagon Wheel
To the south: Talega, San Juan Hills, Marblehead, Forrester Ranch
All these people and vehicles still using the same old freeway??
There's many more communities not even listed here, these are just a few. The County and State approved all this growth, awarded/issued building permits, yet fails to use all the collected tax money they promised for roadway improvements to accomdate this massive growth?? Who ensures our highways are safe, the homeowner, or the regulating government?? Do we just sit back and wait until major accidents and fatalities occurr to finally get a fire under our States butt to fix problem areas?? And who again is responsible for highway design, traffic studies to ensure public safety... mom and dad driving with their kids in the car?
The Coble Family owes NO ONE!! They paid in full with their 3 innocent children.
The verdict in the suit was proper. There was only one thing that caused that accident and it wasn't the freeway design.
What gutless , mindless stooges post here saying the verdict that caltrans was not at fault is acceptable ! As that writer of the last post stated "The County and State approved all this growth, awarded/issued building permits, yet fails to use all the collected tax money they promised for roadway improvements to accomdate this massive growth??" Now ask yourself ; who are the culprits other than these jaded gov't bums in their ivory towers ?
And they get away with murder .
And so a guy who posts under the name "Anonymous" calls me a coward for posting an opinion under my own name. Hopefully, Anonymous, you see the irony in that.
But you probably don't.
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