Why WA will pay $30M after Pierce County boy was fatally struck in crosswalk
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- Michael Weilert, a 13-year-old boy, was killed in a crosswalk in Parkland in 2022.
- Weilert pushed a flashing beacon to alert drivers before crossing, but it wasn’t working.
- His family sued the state for negligence. The case was settled for $30 million.
Washington state will pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a 13-year-old boy who was fatally struck by a jeep in a Parkland crosswalk in 2022, according to court records and an attorney representing the family.
Michael Weilert was killed attempting to cross State Route 7, or Pacific Avenue, on a bicycle at 134th Street near his home in the late afternoon of July 19, 2022. He had pressed a button to activate a flashing beacon intended to alert motorists that the crosswalk was in use, but the beacon malfunctioned, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint, filed in Pierce County Superior Court in 2023, claimed that the Washington State Department of Transportation knew that the warning device — known as a rectangular rapid flashing beacon — was faulty for several weeks before the deadly crash but failed to take any action. The inoperative device and lack of signage warning the public that it was not working were to blame for Weilert’s death, according to the suit.
Attorney Evan Bariault, who represented the plaintiffs, confirmed the settlement’s dollar amount to The News Tribune.
“I think, in a way, (the settlement) helps provide some closure for the Weilert family,” Bariault said in an interview Friday. “The case was never really about money. The case has really been more about creating change, especially in Parkland.”
In a statement, WSDOT spokesperson Cara Mitchell said that “one tragic incident like this is one too many.”
“While the state has reached a settlement with the family, we recognize that the loss of Michael Weilert was devastating for the family, friends and the community,” Mitchell said. “WSDOT continues to work with communities and partners toward our state’s Target Zero goals.”
Target Zero is the state’s plan aimed at eliminating all traffic deaths and serious injuries on state roadways by 2030.
Weilert’s death reverberated throughout the community and spurred calls for improved transportation safety. Weilert’s mother, Amber, committed to becoming a fierce advocate for the cause.
Mitchell said Monday that the settlement was not the largest in WSDOT’s history, as had been suggested in a court filing by a court-appointed representative for one of Weilert’s brothers. Mitchell cited a $59.75 million settlement reached in 2015 over the Taylor Bridge Fire three years earlier, which she said was suspected to have started due to a contractor welding on a nearby WSDOT bridge project near Cle Elum.
In the court filing regarding the Weilert’s family’s settlement, the court-appointed representative, called a guardian ad litem, had reported that the $30 million settlement was believed to be the largest ever entered into by WSDOT and potentially the biggest in state history for a wrongful death case involving a minor. A guardian ad litem represents the best interests of a minor or incapacitated person in legal proceedings. Weilert’s four siblings and parents were the six beneficiaries in the lawsuit, which was filed by Weilert’s parents and aunt. Weilert’s aunt represented his estate.
On Nov. 7, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Susan L. Caulkins approved the settlement that all sides reached in August, court records show.
Crash fault won’t be decided by jury
While Weilert was crossing state-maintained Pacific Avenue, which runs in two lanes in each direction, a pickup yielded in the northbound curbside lane and a jeep in the northbound left lane hit him. The light set up at a sidewalk on the road’s east side had flashed as designed, but a beacon located on an island in the middle of the road, meant to alert non-curbside drivers, did not flash, the lawsuit said.
Rebeca Magdaleno, the jeep’s driver, had her view of Weilert obstructed by the truck when she crashed into Weilert with the front-right corner of her vehicle, throwing him across the intersection, according to the suit. Magdaleno, who was not charged with a crime but named as a defendant in the civil case, argued that she would not have hit Weilert if the beacon had worked, according to the late-October filing from the guardian ad litem.
Magdaleno, who police determined was neither distracted nor impaired in the crash, will pay $50,000 through her automobile insurance policy as part of the settlement, the court filing said.
Although WSDOT took responsibility for failing to repair the flashing beacon or warn pedestrians and drivers that it did not work, the agency alleged that the crash would have occurred regardless because Magdaleno was inattentive, the filing shows.
Weilert was previously legally determined to not have been comparatively at fault and, had the case made it to trial, jurors would have been left to determine who and what caused the crash, according to the filing.
“No one can predict a jury’s decision with absolute certainty, especially when it comes to damages, and reasonable resolution is often preferred over a risky trial,” the document said.
Case put focus on pedestrian safety
The inoperative crosswalk beacon was missing a solar panel, battery controller and cabinet, a WSDOT spokesperson told news outlet KIRO 7 shortly after the incident. It had been noticed by the agency roughly four days before the crash and parts were ordered, but those took four weeks to deliver, the spokesperson said.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers called into question the agency’s awareness of the issue, saying that WSDOT maintenance reports showed the state knew as early as May 31, 2022, that parts were missing and that the beacon wasn’t working. An internal WSDOT email, cited in the lawsuit, indicated that needed parts were ordered a day prior to Weilert’s death.
On Friday, Bariault said it appeared that parts were ordered on the day of the crash or the day after. The plaintiffs’ legal counsel, which included Delaney Mason Digiovanni and Theron A. Buck from Seattle-based Frey Buck, never got clarity on the timeline, Bariault said.
The case raised the broader issue of pedestrian safety along State Route 7, with the lawsuit alleging that necessary parts for beacons along the road were often damaged or stolen. Beacons were either missing or not working at five of 11 crosswalks at the time of the crash, the suit said.
Bariault said that the state failed to alert the public when beacons were inoperative and, without a backup cache, restoration took six to eight weeks as parts were reordered.
Now that the case has been resolved, Bariault said Weilert’s family felt “some semblance of justice” and were happy to close this chapter. Amber Weilert has been paramount in helping to ensure crosswalk safety was funded, he said, adding that the family wants to use settlement dollars to continue advocating in Michael Weilert’s name.
In line with that advocacy, he said he believed that all crosswalks on State Route 7 were underway to be signalized.
“They want to create a legacy for Michael, and they really want to ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Bariault said, noting that they were determined to ensure rural and residential neighborhoods were safe for pedestrians. “They hope that this is a little bit of a wake-up call to the state to ensure that that’s happening.”
Weilert was with a friend at the time who witnessed the crash. That friend, through legal guardians, sued the state and Magdaleno in June for emotional distress and other claims, court records show. The case, also being litigated by Frey Buck, is ongoing. The state has sought to dismiss it.
This story was originally published November 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated with a comment from a WSDOT spokesperson clarifying that the settlement is not the largest in the agency’s history.
