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Unsafe Road Caused Accident
Posted by: Sam Nicholson
October 07, 2008

An elderly Rancho Palos Verdes couple has been awarded $11.6 million by a jury that found a lack of safety measures on a remote highway caused the husband to crash into an embankment.

Cletus Schmidt, 79, was left a paraplegic and reliant on a ventilator as a result of the Jan. 16, 2006, accident.

On Monday, a Riverside Superior Court jury ordered the state Department of Transportation to pay Schmidt and his wife, Marlene Schmidt, 77, for the agency's negligence. The jury found the agency 90 percent responsible for the crash and Schmidt 10 percent responsible.

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