Vogland v. State of Washington / 2019
On Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017 at 11:00 AM —Adam Vogland is heading northbound on SR 167, traveling at 30-35 mph in a 35-mph zone as he approaches a sharp curve to the left.
A white Toyota Tacoma pickup heads toward the curve from the opposite direction. The Toyota driver, Zachary Bainter, falls asleep at the wheel. Rather than negotiate the curve to the right, his pickup continues straight. Its wheels easily mount and travel over the C-curbing in the median. The Toyota slams into Adam Vogland’s Mercury Sable almost head-on.
Adam is pinned inside his crushed car, in severe pain and unable to move. He calls Tiffany and tells her he’s been in a horrible crash. He is “screaming and screaming about his leg.”
Adam sustained fractures of his left forearm, left hip, left leg, and ribs. He underwent multiple surgeries on his left forearm, left hip, and left leg, and now has plates and screws in each of these areas of his body. The injuries to his left leg required a fasciotomy to prevent swelling that could restrict blood flow. Due to being immobilized, Mr. Vogland developed a blood clot in his lungs (acute respiratory failure secondary to acute pulmonary embolism).
Crossover Collisions That Happened at This Exact Curve:
2008: April 6, June 28, August 9, August 27, October 3, October 30
2009: April 13, April 17, November 9
2010: January 4, January 16, (double-fatality); January 30, April 14, August 31, September 15, September 17, September 23
2011: October 28
2012: November 17
2013: January 7
2014: January 11, November 2, December 30
2015: October 7
2016: October 8, January 8
2017: January 8, April 16 (Vogland)
The average daily traffic volume through this curve is 48,000 vehicles (both directions combined). The posted speed limit is 35 mph, with a 30-mph advisory speed at the curve for northbound traffic and a 25-mph advisory speed for southbound traffic.
The extensive history of cross-over head-on collisions at the State Route 167/E. Bay Street curve in Tacoma had for years conclusively demonstrated a hazardous section of highway.
The curve is approximately 60 degrees and has a radius of 230 feet, which does not meet current WSDOT design standards for the posted speed limit.
Only C-curbing runs along the median through this curve. C-curbing has a sloped face and is approximately four to five inches high. The State has admitted that this traversable curbing is ineffective in re-directing an errant vehicle or in otherwise preventing a southbound car from mounting and readily crossing the centerline and colliding head-on with an innocent northbound motorist.
For well over a century, our courts have consistently held that governmental entities have a duty to exercise ordinary care in the design, construction, maintenance, and repair of our public roads to keep them in a reasonably safe condition for ordinary travel. Despite a history of an extraordinary series of severe collisions, this curve remained unchanged – with no effective centerline barrier -- and continued to be inherently dangerous through the time of Mr. Vogland’s horrible collision that physically and emotionally altered his life.