County Panel Backs Settlement of $650,000 in Lancaster Traffic Death

The Los Angeles County Claims Board on Monday approved paying a $650,000 settlement to the family of an Antelope Valley man who died in a traffic accident that may have been caused by a poorly maintained county road.

The Board of Supervisors must still approve the award, but claims board recommendations are rarely rejected, county Auditor-Controller Nancy Singer said.

David Skelton, 34, of Lake Hughes died in May, 1985, after he lost control of his car on an S-curve in an unincorporated area of Lancaster. He was a clerk at the Mojave post office.

Originally, his widow, Lola, sought $2.25 million in damages on behalf of herself and their six children in a lawsuit, the claims board reported. The trial was postponed until March, 1991, while settlement alternatives were discussed.

Singer said Lola Skelton’s attorney had accepted the proposed settlement.

According to California Highway Patrol reports, David Skelton was traveling east on Avenue I one evening, swerved off the roadway onto the dirt shoulder, tried to regain control and ended up skidding across the road and into an embankment. Skelton’s car flipped and, according to the CHP, he died instantly of a broken neck.

In her suit against the county, Lola Skelton asserted that poor maintenance of the dirt shoulder and an absence of sufficient striping on Avenue I led to her husband’s death. The county’s own investigation found that the street had a dashed yellow line, but that the curve did not have any warning signs and that the dirt shoulder was two inches lower than the pavement.

Although Singer said the county does not concede in the settlement that it caused Skelton’s death, the settlement recommendation states: “A jury might well conclude that the county failed to maintain or delineate this roadway properly and award plaintiffs a verdict in excess of the proposed settlement.”