Washington state to pay $28M settlement to crash survivor
TACOMA, Wash. — Washington state has agreed to pay a $28 million settlement to a woman who was left quadriplegic in a wreck on Interstate 5 in DuPont.
The News Tribune reports 20-year-old Skylar Seward filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Transportation after the car she was riding in crashed into an overpass pillar in October 2013.
The lawsuit claimed a guardrail or barrier should have been installed to stop a car from hitting the pillar, but instead there was an earthen berm.
Seward's attorneys say the berms were proven ineffective, and the state Legislature in 2006 had funded a six-year plan to replace them. They claim the department failed to do so.
The department says the 26 remaining earthen berms will be fixed between 2019 and 2021.