Split justices find no liability for state in highway fatality

The state highway department is not liable in the death of a 17-year-old girl in a Pike County collision, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in turning aside a wrongful-death lawsuit.

Paul and Catherine Risner had won a ruling from the Franklin County Court of Appeals that the Ohio Department of Transportation contributed to their daughter’s death, but the justices overturned the ruling by a 4-3 vote.

Amber Risner of Jasper was killed in 2009 when a sportutility vehicle driven by a friend drove into the side of a tractor-trailer at Rts. 32 and 220. She was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the SUV.

Her parents filed suit, claiming that ODOT negligently designed and maintained the intersection by installing flashing warning signals instead of a stoplight and failing to remove a slope in the road that reduced visibility.

The appeals court overturned the Ohio Court of Claims in finding that the installation of red-and-yellow flashing lights in 2005 was an improvement rather than maintenance.

As an improvement, ODOT was responsible to upgrade the intersection to modern standards, which it failed to do, the appeals court ruled.

The Supreme Court found that ODOT was entitled to immunity and was not liable for the girl’s death because law permits the state to make discretionary planning and policy decisions.

ODOT’s decision to install flashing lights and signage at the intersection did not trigger a duty to upgrade other elements of the highway, such as regrading to improve sightlines, the court ruled.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justices Judith Ann Lanzinger, Terrence O’Donnell and Sharon L. Kennedy formed the four-vote majority.

Justices Paul E. Pfeifer, Judith L. French and William M. O’Neill disagreed.

“Whether to upgrade an intersection is part of ODOT’s discretionary function,” Pfeifer acknowledged in a dissenting opinion.

“But it is not within the discretion of ODOT to ignore its own standards once it does undertake a highway improvement,” Pfeifer wrote.