Opinion ID: 1727659
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Correction of Signal Malfunction

Text: Once it is found that the State had notice of the malfunction, the question becomes whether the malfunction was corrected within a reasonable time. The State maintains it made reasonable efforts to ascertain whether the traffic signal was malfunctioning but that the signal did not display conflicting green lights whenever State employees checked on the problem. The State had corrected other problems with the traffic signal during the 6 months preceding the accident. For example, the conflict monitor was replaced in August 1998 due to a DC-voltage failure. A conflict monitor is a component in a traffic-signal cabinet that detects improper electrical current sent between the other components. The traffic-signal cabinet at the intersection was designed so that if conflicting current was detected by the conflict monitor, the traffic signal was put into flash mode. The State also corrected a problem with a defective loop detector that caused the red lights to stay on too long. McCoy, a district maintenance superintendent for the Department of Roads, testified that someone from the State checked the signal in response to all complaints. He did not believe that the lights could have been green and conflicting at the time of the accident because each time the State responded to a complaint, everything was functioning normally. Racely, a highway maintenance superintendent, testified that the State had checked the traffic signal after receiving complaints. He did not have a key to access the traffic-signal cabinet, but he visually inspected the signal after complaints and found it to be working properly. This evidence establishes that the State attempted to fix the malfunctioning traffic signal. Fickle presented numerous eyewitness reports of conflicting green lights before, during, and after the accident. Several of such instances have been detailed previously. Two eyewitnesses testified that the traffic signal was displaying conflicting green lights the evening of February 14, 1999, before the accident. John Gardner, Jr., who lived in Schuyler, stated that he traveled through the intersection between 5 and 6 p.m. As he approached and entered the intersection from the west, his light was green. After entering the intersection, he nearly collided with another car coming from the south. After Gardner stopped, he could see that both lights were green. Rist had driven to her job at the Gas 'N Shop that evening between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. When she arrived at the store, she observed that the traffic signal was displaying green in all directions. She reported the situation to police officers who were in the store around 10 p.m. About the same time, Gardner was seated at a table in the Gas 'N Shop and was looking out the window. He could see both the westbound light for Highway 30 and the southbound light for Highway 15. He saw the collision and noticed that both lights were green at the time. Michelle Egr testified that between 6 and 6:30 a.m. the day after the accident, she approached the intersection from the south and could see that the light was green, but she also saw eastbound and westbound vehicles on Highway 30 traveling through the intersection. She slowed down because she obviously knew that there was something not right. By the time Egr arrived at the intersection, her light had changed to red, and she stopped. When her northbound light again turned green, Egr was shocked to find that an eastbound semitrailer truck passed through the intersection. She looked at the traffic signal and discovered that both the northbound and eastbound lights were green. The State was not immune from liability under § 81-8,219(9) if it did not correct the malfunction of the traffic signal within a reasonable time after having actual or constructive notice of such malfunction. An attempt to correct the malfunction does not exempt the State from liability. The evidence and the reasonable inferences therefrom establish that the State failed to repair the defective traffic signal. The district court was not clearly wrong in its implicit finding that the State had notice of the malfunctioning traffic signal but did not correct the malfunction within a reasonable time.