Hernandez

Kathleen Hernandez, the family of Ashlee Hernandez and Rochelle Ramos filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) after Ramos and Kathleen Hernandez were injured and Ashlee Hernandez was killed in an automobile accident at the Lower Azusa Road off-ramp on the Interstate 605 freeway. They contend the lack of a guardrail at the accident location constituted a dangerous condition of public property. The trial court granted Caltrans’s motion for summary judgment, finding the action was barred by statutory design immunity as a matter of law. We reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

According to the undisputed facts presented in connection with Caltrans’s motion for summary judgment, the accident at issue in this case occurred on September 10, 1999. Plaintiffs were passengers in a Toyota Camry driven by Melinda Martinez. The Camry was pursued by a Kia driven by Ramos’s former boyfriend Raul Contreras, Jr. The Kia chased the Camry from surface streets in West Covina to the Interstate 10 freeway and then to the northbound Interstate 605 freeway. The cars were traveling at a high speed when Contreras intentionally rammed the Camry.…