Where Transportation Engineering Meets the Law (On-Demand)

ON-DEMAND

This is a recommended course for any transportation engineer that wants to prepare oneself for future inquiries into your design solutions. Lawsuits and threats of lawsuits will be a part of your job. In this short course you will learn about proper documentation and risk management so you can feel confident implementing innovative engineering solutions in your work.

If you are a transportation engineer you will have design failures. If this happens you will be dispositioned and you will need to be prepared to share your documentation and risk valuations for the project. This course informs individuals engaged in the design, implementation, and maintenance of traffic control devices of the legal issues and ramifications of their actions.  The course identifies existing laws which govern such actions and accepted guidelines for implementation. The participant will learn how to prepare for, respond to, and protect themselves from legal actions.

Course Outline

Morning Session

1. Introductions

2. Course Objectives

3. Traffic Engineering Perspective

1. Traditional Response to Crashes

2. Safe System Approach

3. Result

4. Guiding Principles and Requirements

4. Legal Perspective - ABK Presentation

1. Civil Litigation

2. Road Liability

3. Case examples

4. Other Considerations

Afternoon Session

1. Case Examples

2. Questions and Discussion

3. Final

Gary A. Norris, PE, PTOE, RSP2i

Gary A. Norris has over 50 years of experience in project delivery, traffic engineering and transportation planning, both as a consulting engineer and a traffic engineer and planner for local governments in the Puget Sound Region. During the last eight years Mr. Norris has been involved in forensic work evaluating the cause of crashes on the roadway network and representing plaintiffs and defendants in roadway liability claims. These cases have involved roadway design, street lighting, channelization, guardrails, cable barriers, pavement failure, signal operations, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and maintenance practices.

Mr. Norris was Renton’s City Traffic Engineer for ten years and was responsible for the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the City’s transportation facilities. Mr. Norris is a past president for the Washington State Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and a current member of the ITE International Safety Council, Safety Chair for Washington State Section Traffic Safety Committee, and a member of the Target Zero advisory committee.

While not responding to requests for crash evaluation, Mr. Norris is an organist for the First Presbyterian Church of Everett. He and his wife love to travel and spend time with their eleven grandchildren. Gary is delighted to team up with Amanda and present this class and share ideas to reduce liability claims for professionals and their agencies.

Amanda Bley Kuehn, J.D.

Amanda Kuehn has been a practicing attorney in the State of Washington since 2010. She is a partner at the law firm of Law, Lyman, Daniel, Kamerrer & Bogdanovich, PLLC in Olympia where she practices tort defense litigation for cities, counties, and quasi-governmental entities like fire districts and ports. Amanda also serves as a Special Assistant Attorney General where she represents the State of Washington in tort lawsuits, primarily for the Department of Transportation.

For the last ten years, Amanda has specialized in defense of claims involving road design, improvement, and maintenance. These cases include crosswalk installation, road diet, use of engineering studies and engineering judgment, use of advanced warning signage, as well as roadside vegetation maintenance, among many others. These cases often involve application of the MUTCD, AASHTO guidelines, and WSDOT design manual.

She has also handled cases involving several different modalities including vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, motorized scooters, Razor scooters, electric bicycles, skateboards and electric wheelchairs.

While not an engineer by trade, Amanda can speak at a high level to engineering concepts and design techniques applicable to her road cases. Every case presents a different set of facts and engineering concerns, so every case is a lesson in both the law and engineering fundamentals.;

When not practicing, Amanda enjoys traveling, distance running, learning to sail, playing cribbage with her husband at the local marina (and winning, of course), and trying to get an occasional 18-holes in before the rain comes. On those rainier days, Amanda can be found snuggling up to a good book with her two disobedient but lovable rescue terriers. Amanda is excited to be teaching this class with Gary Norris and humbled to be welcomed by the University of Washington.