Edgar

Donald Eugene Edgar, Jr., and his minor children seek a writ of mandate to compel the Calaveras County Superior Court to require the State of California, Department of Transportation (State), to answer interrogatories.

The sole issue presented is the scope of the privilege of confidentiality granted by Vehicle Code section 20012.

In 1976, Donald Edgar and his children filed an action seeking damages for the wrongful death of Leslie, his wife and mother of the children. Liability of the State was asserted on the basis of negligence in the design, construction, and maintenance of a turn-out lane on Highway 49 in Calaveras County, at the site of the accident. (Gov. Code, '§§ 835, 815.6.)

As part of pretrial discoveiy, petitioners served interrogatories on the State seeking information about prior accidents occurring at the site of the Edgar fatality. Essentially the interrogatories sought all the information contained in the filed reports of prior accidents. The specific information sought included the dates and times of each prior accident; the number of persons involved; the number, if any, killed; the exact location of the accidents, the names and addresses of all…