$5.6 MILLION AWARDED PAIR JURY SAYS CALTRANS AT FAULT FOR FIERY HEAD-ON CRASH ON A.V. FREEWAY.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Granada Hills couple was awarded $5.6 million for a fiery head-on Antelope Valley Freeway crash 12 years ago that severely injured the man and left the woman scarred from burns.

After less than two days of deliberation, an Antelope Valley jury concluded that the California Department of Transportation was completely at fault for Stacy and Rodney Cornette's injuries, which occurred after an out-of-control vehicle forced their car across the freeway's barrier-less median and into oncoming traffic.

``After approving a median barrier for a stretch of Highway 14 in 1989, Caltrans took eight years to finish the job,'' attorney Larry Grassini said in a statement issued after the verdict. ``This horrific accident could have been avoided if Caltrans had operated in a professional manner.''

Caltrans had won an earlier trial after insisting it be held before a judge, who ruled the agency had no liability. But the couple's attorneys appealed, and the California Supreme Court agreed the couple deserved a trial before a jury.

The Cornettes' attorneys said traffic increased dramatically on the freeway in the late 1980s and early 1990s because of the Antelope Valley's high population growth, meaning the freeway's barrier-less median was no longer safe.

Three years after the 1992 crash, Caltrans installed barriers between the north- and southbound lanes where the crash occurred, just south of the Pearblossom Highway off-ramp. It later extended the barriers northward into Palmdale.

Caltrans said in court the agency didn't have the money to install the barriers immediately, the Cornettes' attorneys said.

Grassini said the verdict was a message for Caltrans: ``They cannot waste taxpayers' time and money on mismanaged projects and extreme levels of bureaucracy that have a direct impact on public safety.''

Responded Caltrans Deputy Chief Counsel David Simmes: ``We strongly disagree with the characterization of facts in the case as provided by Mr. Grassini. We will do our talking in court, not in the newspaper,''

In the eight years between approving the median barrier and finishing the installation, 21 crashes occurred, the Cornettes' attorneys said. At least six people died in head-on crashes across the barrier-less median between Palmdale and Acton from 1990 to 1998, records show.

Then Palmdale residents, the Cornettes had gone to Magic Mountain amusement park but returned because it was too crowded, according to trial testimony. They were heading north on the Antelope Valley Freeway when the crash occurred.

Another vehicle heading north had a tire go flat, then spun out and hit the Cornettes' car, forcing it across the dirt median, Grassini said.

The Cornettes' car collided head-on with a southbound pickup truck and caught fire. Rodney Cornette, then 24, suffered collapsed lungs and a shattered pelvis. Stacy Cornette, then 23, was trapped in the fire when it caught fire and suffered burns to her face and body.

She has had 26 surgeries and will have more, her attorneys said. The jury awarded $3.3 million to Stacy Cornette and $2.3 million to Rodney Cornette, court officials said.