The accident was bizarre.
David Keegan's car hit black ice on I-80 in Parleys Canyon and skidded out of control. The car climbed the median barrier separating the lanes of traffic, slid along the top of the barrier and crashed into a pillar.Keegan was killed.
The barrier, it turned out, was too short.
But the Utah Supreme Court this week ruled that the state was immune from liability for its failure to make the barrier higher after two road-resurfacing projects raised the road.
That ruling cost David's widow, Cynthia, $250,000. This is the second time Cynthia Keegan has watched her jury verdict dwindle.
After her husband was killed, she sued the state and the Utah Department of Transportation.
A jury awarded her $500,000 for her husband's death, con-clud-ing that the state was negligent in not raising the median barrier back up to the level required by safety standards.
But Utah's law caps the government's liability at $250,000, so the trial judge slashed Keegan's award in half.
This week, the high court abolished the award, ruling in favor of the state.
The court concluded that the decision not to raise the concrete median was a discretionary state function. Under the Governmental Immunity Act, the state is immune from any injuries that result from a failure to perform a discretionary function.
Before it resurfaced the road a second time, the state conducted a safety study of that section of I-80 and concluded that leaving the barrier alone would not be a safety problem.
In analyzing the project, the state weighed the safety benefits against the cost, inconvenience and delays of digging the barrier up and replacing it. The state decided to leave the barrier alone. The Federal Highway Administration approved the proposal.
UDOT weighed the benefits against the costs and then making a policy decision. That is exactly the kind of government function the immunity act was meant to protect, the court concluded unanimously.