Black v. State of California CA5

BACKGROUND

On a February night at approximately 9:45, Robert Black was driving on State Route 14, a four-lane highway, with his wife, Rachel, and three children as passengers. While driving in the left lane, Robert noticed a CHP vehicle was stopped in the right lane with its overhead emergency lights activated. Robert pulled up next to the CHP vehicle and stopped. Robert rolled the passenger window down and shouted to CHP Officer Pope to get his attention. Around 10 to 15 seconds after he stopped, Robert’s car was hit from behind by another car. Robert, Rachel and two of their children, Logan and Landen, were injured in the collision. Robert and Rachel’s daughter was killed. Pope was stopped in the right lane to prevent vehicles from traveling in that lane because there was a person threatening to commit suicide by jumping off an overpass approximately 200 feet ahead. This suicidal person was outside of the chain link fence along the overpass but was being restrained by a third party standing inside the fence.

2. This third party had reached through the fence and was holding the suicidal person’s clothes. At the time of the collision, Pope had just recently arrived at the scene.…