Transcript WHAT WE LEARN WHEN WE LOSE - Missouri Department of

LAWSUITS
What We Learn
When We Lose
How Do You
put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
Open the refrigerator,
put in the giraffe,
and close the door.
• This questions tests whether you tend to do
simple things in an overly complicated way.
How Do You
put an elephant into a refrigerator?
Open the refrigerator,
take out the giraffe, put
in the elephant and
close the door.
• This tests your ability to think through the
repercussions of your previous actions.
The Lion King
is hosting an animal conference.
All the animals attend. . . except one.
Which animal does not attend?
The Elephant. The
elephant is in the
refrigerator. You just
put him in there.
• This tests your memory.
There is a river you
must cross
but it is used by crocodiles, and you
do not have a boat.
How do you manage it?
You jump into the river and
swim across. Have you not
been listening? All the
crocodiles are attending
the Animal Meeting.
• This tests whether you listen, or
whether you jump to assumptions.
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K-74 in Atchison County
Late April around 9:30 p.m.
One vehicle accident
In the car is the driver, and five passengers, ages
2, 14, 15, 16, and 17.
The car fails to negotiate a curve and hits a tree.
The driver and 14 year old passenger are killed.
All other passengers are life-flighted from the
scene.
KDOT is sued by the 2 year old, the 14 year old
the 15 year old, the 16 year old, and the 17 year
old.
No claim is made for the death of the driver.
Video logs show that the road was signed like this by at least 1997. A
video log dated 1994 shows three object markers. There is no
evidence that the curve ever had a large arrow or chevrons.
Lessons to be Learned
• Drive the roads like you have never
driven them before. How would this look
to a person unfamiliar with the road
traveling it at night?
• If you change the traffic control, ask
yourself, “How does this change affect
other traffic control in the area?”
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US-24 in Pottawatomie County
US-24 is four lane divided highway
All four lanes of US-24 just recently opened
The EB lanes of US-24 need some further
work on the passing lane edge line.
• EB passing lane is closed.
• Plaintiff is a passenger traveling SB on a
county road. Plaintiff’s vehicle is struck
while crossing the EB lanes on US-24.
• Accident occurs in September 98. Daytime.
Bright and sunny.
Lessons to be Learned
• Projects will encounter needs for traffic
control that were not expected. Try to
anticipate what situations are going to
arise.
• Know what different traffic control
devices mean and use the correct ones.
• If you don’t know how to handle a
situation, call someone who does.
• US-59 in Jefferson County
• Late August, 1:00 p.m., bright and sunny day.
• Project is crack repair preparing the surface for
an overlay.
• 2 lane roadway.
• Flagman operation.
• Stopped at the flagman is a white dodge
carrying mom and 1 year old son.
• Second vehicle in line is a red Ford carrying
mom, dad, 2 year old son and 3 year old
daughter.
Lessons to be Learned
• More signs are not always best.
• Especially when those signs are
wrong.
• Pay attention to the “little things”
like flags.
• Pay attention to your traffic control
plans – everyday.
• US-24 in Pottawatomie County
• US-24 is under construction. The
project is changing the road from two
lane to four lane.
• Accident occurred in early November,
1997.
• Plaintiff is traveling SB on a rural
road.
• Semi is traveling EB on US-24.
• US – 24 and rural road prior to accident.
• US-24 and rural road on day of accident.
Lessons to be Learned
• Check your traffic control – everyday and
every time you travel through a project.
• Remember you may have traffic control in
locations where no work is going on.
• Know what the traffic control layout is
suppose to be.
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US-77 bypass around Arkansas City
October 31, November 1, and 2.
Number injured – 100’s
Number suing KDOT – 16 property owners
The claim is that the construction of the bypass
resulted in flooding.
• Flood was between the 75 and 100 year level.
• All property owners, except one, had no
protection prior to the construction of the
bypass/levee.
Lessons to be Learned
• Write what you mean. Whether it be in
letters, minutes to meetings, diaries,
etc.
• Letters, minutes to meetings, diaries,
etc. are not forms. What you write
may have to be explained by you
someday.
• US-69 in Miami County
• Man, his wife and adult daughter are
traveling southbound when they strike a
cow in the roadway.
• The mother is killed. The daughter is
injured to the point where working is
difficult. The husband suffers minor
injuries.
• KDOT is sued because there is one broken
fence post in the right of way fence.
• The allegation is that the cow got onto the
road through the broken fence post.
• Fences by virtue of their legal and
physical protection:
a. Control Access;
b. Provide Safety to the Traveling
Public;
c. Prevent indiscriminate crossing of
medians or ramps by vehicles or
pedestrians; and
d. Prevent encroachments on the right
of way.
• Fences which have been damaged to
the extent that their effectiveness is
severely reduced should be repaired
immediately. A temporary repair may
be necessary until permanent repairs
can be made.
• State-owned fences should be
inspected a minimum of once per
year and repairs made where needed.
Lessons to be Learned
• Read your policies.
• If the policy says something that
cannot be done or is not done –
change the policy or start doing what
the policy says.
• Speak the truth. Say only what needs
to be said.
Language as Rewritten
After the Lawsuit
• Fences are used to “delineate access
control” for a highway by serving as
a boundary marker. They are used in
the same way that right-of-way
markers or controlled access signs
are used, with or without fence, to
identify the access control line.
• Fences which have been damaged,
should be repaired in a reasonable
time frame. A temporary repair may
be necessary until permanent repairs
can be made.
• State-owned fences should be
inspected periodically and repairs
made where needed.
POSITIVE RESULTS
THROUGH POSITIVE
GUIDANCE: FINAL
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
THE STATES BY THE
NATIONAL ADVISORY TASK
FORCE ON POSITIVE
GUIDANCE
(FHWA Document)
• In order to insure citizens (and
especially elderly citizens) a
uniform and high quality roadway
environment, states should
establish a policy for installation
of visual information devices.
• Signs and road markings must be
designed to accommodate drivers
with the weakest eyes and the
slowest reaction times.
Manual on Uniform
Traffic Control Devices,
2003 Edition
• Section 2A.19 – Standard
Ground-mounted sign supports shall be
breakaway, yielding, or shielded with a
longitudinal barrier or crash cushion if within
the clear zone.
• Section 2A.21 – Standard
Sign posts, foundations, and mountings shall
be so constructed as to hold signs in a proper
and permanent position, and to resist swaying
in the wind or displacement by vandalism.
• Section 3A.02 – Standard
Markings that must be visible at night
shall be retroreflective unless ambient
illumination ASSURES that the markings
are adequately visible.
• Recommended language.
Markings that should be visible at night
shall be retroreflective unless ambient
illumination provides reasonable
visibility.
• 6E.01 – Guidance
Flaggers should be able to
satisfactorily demonstrate the
following abilities: Ability to move
and maneuver quickly in order to
avoid danger from errant vehicles.
Recommended language:
Ability to move and maneuver in a
reasonably quick manner.
• Figure VI-63 shows a short-term
road closure caused by an
unplanned incident such as a
traffic accident that blocks the
traveled way. . . . The local traffic
engineering department will
probably be needed to determine
the detour route and install the
signs.
Lessons to be Learned
• When writing “standards” be objective.
• Do NOT have contradictory statements in
the same document (or even different
documents.)
• Remove the words “assure”, insure” and
“ensure” from all manuals, policies,
writings, documents, etc.
Q.
A.
Q.
A.
And where was the location of the accident?
Approximately milepost 499.
And where is milepost 499?
Probably between milepost 498 and 500.
Q. Did you blow your horn or anything?
A. After the accident.
Q. Before the accident?
A. Sure, I played for ten years.
I even went to school for it.
Q. How far apart were the vehicles
at the time of the collision?
Q. Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you
check for a pulse?
A. No.
Q. Did you check for blood pressure?
A. No.
Q. Did you check for breathing?
A. No.
Q. So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when
you began the autopsy?
A. No.
Q. How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A. Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q. But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?
A. It is possible that he could have been alive and
practicing law somewhere.
THE END