San Diego is paying out $2 million to a woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken bones in a car crash she said was caused by the city’s failure to replace a missing stop sign at state Route 94 and Home Avenue.
Isabella Araceli Franco was severely injured in January 2023 when the Jeep she was driving was broadsided by a Ford F-100 truck at a T-shaped intersection in Mount Hope where Federal Boulevard, Home Avenue and SR-94 come together.
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Franco filed a lawsuit in 2023 blaming the crash on the city and its transportation crews, who were allegedly aware of the need for a replacement stop sign but failed to install one.
In addition to the $2 million from the city, Franco received $480,000 from Progressive Insurance, which had a policy covering the male driver in the Ford truck, according to court documents.
The payout is relatively large because Franco’s traumatic brain injury has prevented her from returning to her job and makes it unlikely she will ever be able to return to work, court documents say.
She also suffered fractures to her left iliac wing, left femur and left acetabulum. Her suit described the injuries as “serious and life-altering” and said Franco has had multiple surgeries since.
According to the suit, Franco came to a full stop after exiting the eastbound offramp of SR-94 at Home Avenue and then began to turn left on to Home Avenue.
As this was happening, the suit says the Ford truck moved quickly from Home onto Federal and didn’t stop at the longtime three-way stop intersection because there was no stop sign facing him.
The suit includes Google images showing that there had a been a stop sign there since at least 2007, but that it had been replaced some months before the accident by a much lower temporary stop sign attached to a small road barricade.
The suit says that even the lower temporary stop sign was not in place at the time of the crash. That night, the small road barricade was tipped over on its side and there was no stop sign at all.
The suit blames city crews, contending their placement of the temporary sign shows they were aware the permanent sign was no longer in place. The suit says state law requires temporary signs to be replaced quickly, which didn’t happen.
“Certified and authenticated Google maps and photographs from Google going back in time show that the subject intersection had been missing a stop sign for several months prior to the subject collision, and the temporary stop sign had been deteriorating for several months prior to the subject collision given that weeds and vegetation had grown through it,” the suit says.
The settlement, which the City Council is scheduled to approve Tuesday, allows the cancellation of a jury trial that Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal had scheduled for March 14. The council approved the settlement in a session closed to the public on Jan. 27.
