SIERRA HIGHWAY SETTLEMENT CRASH VICTIM GETS $199,000.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A Palmdale horseshoer injured in a head-on crash on a problem stretch of Sierra Highway was awarded a $199,000 settlement Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Darin Readmon sued the county after crashing on what he claimed was a dangerous curve in the four-lane road south of Palmdale. Several fatal crashes have occurred in the area, where Sierra meets Pearblossom Highway.

The July 2005 crash occurred at the same location as a December 2001 head-on collision that killed one man and severely injured a Palmdale couple, who eventually received a $1.75 million settlement.

The county Department of Public Works now plans to realign Sierra Highway with a 12-foot-wide striped median and paved shoulders, according to a county staff report.

The schedule for the improvements depends on acquisition of rights-of-way and completion and approval of environmental studies, the report said.

In the meantime, county workers will install by May flashing beacons at curve advisory signs and add additional signs at other locations.

A county counsel memo said if Readmond's case had gone to trial, he likely would have sought damages of $850,600. In defending the lawsuit, the county spent $54,255 in attorney fees and $21,811 in other costs.

Readmond, who at the time of the crash was 38, was driving his pickup truck south on Sierra Highway and collided with another pickup that crossed the center line, the memo said.

Readmond suffered a broken leg, which required hospitalization and the insertion of a steel rod in his leg, the memo said.

Readmond's lawsuit contended the roadway was in a dangerous condition and lacked safety features and controls, such as a median guardrail, the county memo said.

Several fatal collisions have occurred in that general area, which is heavily traveled by east Palmdale commuters and by travelers seeking a shortcut between state Route 138 and the Antelope Valley Freeway.

In the 2001 crash, an Acton man was killed. In January 2004, a Canyon Country man died in a four-vehicle traffic collision that occurred when a pickup truck drifted over the center line and collided with the victim's sedan.

Two motorists died in September 2002 on Pearblossom Highway just east of Sierra only minutes apart in separate collisions.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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