Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman attorneys have reached a $3.9 million settlement with the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (DOT) on behalf of the family of a 21-year-old Mililani man who was killed when his car struck a damaged highway guardrail.
This young man was driving on H-3 Freeway near Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i in August 2020 when his vehicle veered off the road and struck a damaged guardrail. According to the lawsuit filed by Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman attorneys, the guardrail had been damaged by a crash that had occurred in the same location 18 months earlier.
A DOT crew had cut away the damaged rail and replaced it with a temporary repair known as a “boxing glove” – a curved or rounded rail that is not considered “crashworthy.” During the 18 months when the guardrail was unsafe, the DOT neglected to schedule repairs, according to a report from the Hawai‘i Attorney General.
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“It was a very tragic accident, but one that could have been prevented if the state had been doing its job and repairing the guardrail properly,” Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman partner Ilana Waxman told Hawaii News Now.
The $3.9 million settlement was the largest monetary settlement of the year against the state of Hawai‘i. The case demonstrates Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman’s expertise in investigating complex vehicle crashes and holding responsible parties accountable for their negligence.
Collisions involving large trucks and consumer vehicles have become frighteningly common:
- In 2022, there were 523,796 crashes involving large trucks across the U.S., a 26 percent increase over the previous year.
- There has been a 49 percent increase in truck crash fatality accidents in the last 10 years, according to the National Safety Council.
- Fatalities involving medium and heavy duty trucks jumped 17 percent to 5,788 in 2021 (the most recent year that statistics are available).
- From 2020 to 2021, the number of crashes in the U.S. reached 6 million, or approximately 16,500 a day — a 16 percent increase, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- More than 32,000 Americans were killed in wrecks caused by distracted driving between 2012 and 2021, with a roughly 11 percent increase in the number of deaths from 2020 to 2021.
About Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman
Galiher DeRobertis & Waxman is a nationally renowned personal injury law firm dedicated to advocating for Hawai‘i families in personal injury and wrongful death cases involving mesothelioma, birth defects, herbicide and pesticide exposure, sex abuse and defective products, as well as fraud on government contracts. We are Hawai‘i attorneys who have been working on your behalf for over 40 years. To learn more how we can help or for a free consultation, contact us.
