Riverside jury awards man $11.6M after crash

By Jason Pesick on October 2, 2008 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RIVERSIDE (AP) -- A jury awarded a retired attorney $11.6 million after finding that
missing and poorly placed signs were largely to blame for an accident that left him partially paralyzed.

Jurors found Monday that the California Department of Transportation was 90 percent responsible for Cletus Schmidt's 2006 accident, while he was 10 percent responsible.

Schmidt, 80, is unable to walk but he can move his limbs. He was injured in 2006 when he ran a stop sign at a T-intersection near Joshua Tree National Park and plowed into an embankment.

The intersection did not have a reflective double-arrow sign to indicate the road ended and the stop sign was 42 feet away, said Gary Dordick, Schmidt's attorney.

Caltrans will likely appeal, said Caltrans legal spokesman Rose Melgoza.