PARENTS FILE SUIT IN CRASH ROADSIDE CONDITION BLAMED FOR FATALITY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The parents of a young woman killed when her car went out of control on Avenue M says in a lawsuit the road was unsafe because the dirt shoulder was lower than the pavement.

Candice Aguilera's Honda Civic went off the pavement edge on the north side of Avenue M, near 20th Street West, and she lost control of her car as she tried to steer it back onto the pavement.

The Civic crossed into oncoming traffic where it collided with a Chevrolet Suburban.

``The side of the road she was traveling on had an edge drop. The other side is as flat as a pancake,'' said Donald Liddy, the family's attorney. ``Somebody came back afterward and fixed it. They closed the barn door after the horse had left.''

The defendants named in the lawsuit include the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, Los Angeles County, the state and the driver of the Suburban.

Claims seeking more than $4 million in damages were filed by Sandra and Gabriel Aguilera with officials for the cities, the county and the state. All of the claims were denied.

Palmdale officials, in response to the claim, said the crash occurred outside Palmdale city limits.

Lancaster city officials declined to comment on pending litigation, and the county counsel's office did not respond to requests for comment.

Aguilera was killed Dec. 27, 2002, when her 2002 Civic collided head-on with a 1997 Suburban driven by Patricia Soper, 42, of Palmdale.

The crash occurred on Avenue M, a quarter mile east of 20th Street West. Aguilera was traveling west at about 60 to 65 mph approaching 20th Street West, California Highway Patrol officers said.

CHP officers said Aguilera allowed her Honda to drift onto the dirt shoulder and tried to pull the car back onto the roadway, but overcorrected and crossed into the eastbound lanes.

Soper saw the Honda careen into her lane but was unable to stop in time to avoid a collision, officials said.

``The decedent's vehicle was caught between the shoulder and edge of the roadway due to a substantial differentiation in height between the shoulder and the asphalt roadway,'' a representative of her family wrote in the claim filed as a forerunner to the lawsuit. ``Due to the force necessary to steer back over the roadway, plaintiff lost control of her vehicle and was struck head-on by a Chevrolet Suburban.

``This differentiation created a trap for the (unwary), causing the necessity for great force to be used in steering the vehicle back onto the roadway over the edge. The state and city, its agents and employees, should have known of this dangerous condition and taken steps to warn or make safe.''

Liddy said Aguilera's right tire went off the edge of the road and onto what should have been a shoulder.

``When you have road-edge drop, you can't steer back onto the road. It kind of locks your tires. So what she had to do is apply a lot of steering input to the left to get back on the road. When she did this, her car swerved. Her tires were turned in such a way that she was propelled into the other lane of oncoming traffic,'' Liddy said.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com