Is this Tacoma intersection safe? City to pay $2M to dismiss claims it’s not
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- Tacoma will pay $2.3M to settle a lawsuit filed after two girls were struck by a car in 2018.
- The city denied it was negligent for the crash, which occurred in an unmarked intersection.
- Seven years later, the intersection still lacks a designated pedestrian crosswalk.
Tacoma will pay more than $2 million to settle claims that an unmarked city intersection was a known danger to pedestrians when two young girls were struck there by a car and seriously hurt in 2018.
By a 6-0 vote, the City Council agreed on Tuesday to the $2.3 million settlement to resolve a 2023 lawsuit brought in Pierce County Superior Court by the victims’ mother, Sallee Turner, according to video of the council meeting. The agreement came less than a week before the case’s trial was scheduled to begin. The city declined to comment.
On July 6, 2018, a 16-year-old girl and her 3- and 7-year-old sisters were crossing South 12th Street at the South Puget Sound Avenue intersection, which has no designated crosswalk, after leaving nearby Franklin Park, the lawsuit said. The intersection is uncontrolled at South 12th Street but has stop signs on South Puget Sound Avenue.
The teen was carrying the toddler when both girls were hit by a westbound car on South 12th Street, causing the youngest girl to be thrown several feet from her oldest sister’s arms, according to the suit. The 7-year-old girl was narrowly missed.
Dewayne Watkins Jr., then 26, was the uninsured driver of the vehicle and pleaded guilty in 2019 to two counts of vehicular assault, court records show. He was sentenced to a year in prison, according to court records.
Police calculated that Watkins was driving 53 mph in the 30 mph zone prior to applying his brakes and sliding 21 feet to the point of impact, charging papers said. He would have avoided the girls had he been going the posted speed limit, according to police. He was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit but never appeared in court to answer it.
The suit alleged that Tacoma “had actual and/or constructive knowledge” that the busy roadway intersection posed a danger to crossing pedestrians and was inadequately marked.
In addition to declining to address the settlement, Tacoma also chose not to answer The News Tribune’s questions about the intersection.
“The City of Tacoma does not comment on matters directly tied to litigation like this,” city spokesperson Dee Paul said in an email.
In a response filed in court soon after the lawsuit was lodged, the city “denie(d) that it breached any applicable duty of care owed to Plaintiffs.” It also argued there was no causation between its alleged negligence and the crash and that at least some of the plaintiffs bore responsibility, a filing shows.
Attorney Erica Buckley, who represented Turner and Turner’s children in litigation, said in an interview Wednesday that the victims have generally recovered from the physical and mental health injuries they suffered but there are some lingering effects.
The oldest victim, now an adult, wrote in a court declaration that she had been hospitalized with head, neck, knee and back injuries, court records show. Her 3-year-old sister suffered skull and spinal fractures, respiratory failure and abrasions, according to the declaration.
No crosswalk installed at crash site
Seven years after the crash, the intersection remains without a designated crosswalk. Buckley, who’s also an Edgewood City Council member, said she was disappointed because she believed it would be “a simple change” to make and not overly expensive.
“I think that it’s sad that there haven’t been changes made there especially knowing that Franklin Park is a popular place for people to go,” Buckley said, adding that it was particularly kids who’d be likely to visit the park’s “sprayground” — a water play area. Franklin Elementary School is also adjacent to the park.
In court filings responding to the suit, Tacoma’s legal counsel said there had been no citizen complaints about the intersection that predated the crash and a city-retained engineering consultant noted that there had been no other pedestrian crashes there during a studied period between April 2011 to April 2021.
There are warning signs nearby, including “SCHOOL” pavement stencils on South 12th Street about 175 feet east of the intersection; a school flasher roughly 75 feet west of the intersection for a marked crosswalk at a South Union Avenue traffic signal; and a crosswalk at a traffic signal about 850 feet east of the intersection that provides direct access to Franklin Elementary School’s campus, engineering consultant Michael Cynecki wrote in a June 2023 filing.
“A marked crosswalk at Puget Sound Avenue may discourage pedestrians, especially school children, from using the traffic signals west and east of S Puget Sound Avenue to cross S 12th Street,” Cynecki wrote. “As a result, the Puget Sound Avenue intersection would be a very poor location for a marked crosswalk across S 12th Street.”
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Andre Penalver last year denied the city’s efforts to dismiss the case and subsequently denied its request that he reconsider his decision, court records show.
Buckley said she learned that a stretch of roadway including the intersection was being studied this year for potential improvements as part of the city’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2035. While Buckley credited the city for being more proactive in addressing traffic safety since 2018, instead of relying on citizen complaints, she said it was a “real shame” that the intersection at South 12th Street at South Puget Sound Avenue hadn’t been given proactive attention — via rectangular rapid flashing beacons, a marked crosswalk or otherwise.
After the crash, community members wrote to the city and made an effort to draw focus to the intersection, according to Buckley.
“I hope that does mean something to the city,” she said, adding later: “We don’t need to wait until a tragedy happens. And once the tragedy does happen, there should be swift action to remedy this.”
In 2023, Turner and her partner reached a $300,000 settlement with Turner’s insurer, American Family Insurance Company, arising out of a separate lawsuit filed over the crash, court records show. The city was initially named as a defendant in that case but then dismissed from it by the plaintiffs before the most recent suit was filed. Buckley said the insurer’s settlement was insufficient to cover damages.
