How William Shapiro's Closing Wrapped a $2M Verdict in a Fatal Crash Case Against a City

Successfully arguing a city’s negligence in a road-related decision can be a difficult hurdle to overcome in a crash case. But in a wrongful death trial against a California city, William Shapiro’s closing argument highlights logic and utility to deliver a seven-figure win. 

Sandy Alechman died in 2011 when her SUV struck a cement box alongside San Timoteo Canyon Road. Her husband sued the City of Redlands, claiming the municipality knew the box, sitting just 15 inches from the roadway, was a danger to drivers, but did nothing about it. 

In closings, Shapiro contended the box violated the concept of a “clear zone,” a zone immediately off the roadside that allowed drivers who strayed from the roadway to return safely. “People using the road with due care, paying attention, using it appropriately— they have to go out of the roadway from time to time,” Shapiro told the jury, citing a study that shows about 80 percent of vehicles that leave the roadway can recover safely with sufficient space. 

Shapiro acknowledged that a number of objects, including telephone poles, stood immediately adjacent to the roadway, seeming to violate the clear zone he advocated. 

The difference? “There’s utility to those things, ladies and gentlemen,” Shapiro said. “Because, as we say, we don’t live in a perfect world. Sandy Alechman didn’t live in a perfect world.”

By contrast, Shapiro said, no one brought to trial truly knew the purpose of the box that caused the crash. “You have a box, that after four years, we don’t even know what that box is. No one knows what it is, who put it there, and why it’s there. No one knows what it’s for,” Shapiro said. 

“This is a utility situation where there is no chance that there is any utility.” 

Shapiro then turned the spotlight on the box and the city’s allegedly unreasonable decision not to remove it by pointing out that the box remained, with no apparent purpose, even after Alechman’s death. “For four years having this case I’ve been going down San Timoteo Canyon Road. And for 4 years I’ve been waiting, saying ‘I’m going to go by this road and this thing is going to be gone,’” Shapiro said. “And it’s not. It’s not gone.”

Jurors found the jury 65% responsible for the crash and handed down a $2 million verdict.