A Vista jury awarded more than $3 million to a motorcyclist who crashed into a California Highway Patrol vehicle on a North County freeway, with the biker's attorneys saying Tuesday that the officer negligently stopped his vehicle in lanes of traffic.
Jurors ruled earlier this year in favor of Christopher Carlisle, who suffered major injuries after he crashed on the afternoon of Aug. 31, 2021, into a CHP officer's vehicle that was stopped on the left side of southbound Interstate 5, just south of Lomas Santa Fe.
Carlisle's attorneys say the officer, Robert Schmidt, stopped to pick up a ladder that had fallen onto the freeway, but didn't follow CHP policies, which require officers to conduct a traffic break in which police vehicles weave across lanes in order to signal other drivers to slow down.
Instead, they say, the officer simply stopped near the median, with his vehicle partially jutting out into traffic lanes, and got out of his vehicle without turning on his overhead lights.
One of Carlisle's attorneys, Corey Garrard, said multiple vehicles were forced to swerve out of the way to avoid colliding with the officer's vehicle and that Carlisle could not see the CHP vehicle "until it was too late."
The resulting injuries required 10 surgeries -- with a hip surgery planned in the near future -- and included a compound fracture to his leg, two discs ruptured in his neck, and torn ligaments in his ankle, among others.
At the conclusion of a trial, jurors found the fault was with the officer and awarded Carlisle $3,085,296.71.
The CHP could not immediately be reached for comment on the verdict.
In court documents, Schmidt stated that he did not have enough time to conduct a traffic break because the ladder was not where he expected it to be.
Garrard said that an internal CHP investigation concluded the officer was at fault, though attorneys for CHP and the state argued at trial that Carlisle was negligent.
"We all recognize the job of the CHP is important,'' Garrard said at a Tuesday morning news conference announcing the verdict. ``The ladder did need to be removed at some point and in some manner from the freeway and we're not here to downplay the importance of that. We're not here to downplay the role that these officers play in our lives. Something as simple as commuting to the office safely -- we have them to thank for that. But when people make mistakes, they need to have the courage to stand up and take accountability for that.''
Carlisle said Tuesday that he tried to avoid striking the officer, who was standing outside of his vehicle.
Carlisle, who works as a security guard, said he respects police and is friends with many law enforcement officers, but said, ``I've kind of lost my faith in the system through this, watching the actions of the state and the highway patrol in this event. ... I was always told as a child, if there's trouble, run to a `black-and-white car.' And now the furthest thing from my mind after this incident is running to a black-and-white-car.''
