Settlement Reached in Fatal Plunge Off Highway

After Amy Ellington’s car tumbled 500 feet off California 33 nearly two years ago, her husband wanted assurance no one else would die the same way.

When a settlement was reached last week, Chad Ellington finally felt relief.

Although the California Department of Transportation is not bound to build a guardrail or wall along the road, attorneys for both sides said something most likely will be constructed to make the road safer.

“Nothing is going to bring Amy back, but when they build something that could save someone else’s family this pain, that is the only consolation I have,” said Ellington, a Goleta resident who lived in Ojai when his wife died. “I don’t allow anyone I know to drive that road the way it is.”

On April 2, 1999, Amy Ellington’s car slid on a patch of ice and went over the cliff near Pine Mountain Summit. Attorneys say Ellington, 31, was traveling about 25 mph on her way to visit her son, who was staying with her mother in Livermore.

Several hours later, Chad Ellington received a call from his wife’s mother, who was wondering why Amy had not arrived.

Ellington spent the next three days looking for his wife, driving past the spot of the accident at least eight times, he said.

“I wasn’t given the chance to save her because I didn’t know where she was,” he said. “She could have been lying down there for two days waiting for me.”

On one drive along the road, Ellington said, he was driving about 5 mph and his wheels slid on the same patch of ice. At least two other area residents contacted him saying they had problems at the same spot.

In addition to the barrier, Ellington and the couple’s three children will receive $2 million from the state. Half the money will go toward an education fund to help the children pay for college. The other half will pay Ellington $1,000 a month for the rest of his life. The children will have the same arrangement when they reach 21.

Ellington said any type of barrier might have saved his wife by giving rescue workers an indication of the accident site.

Caltrans attorneys said a guardrail at the site would seem to be a good idea, but added there are structural difficulties.

A guardrail would make the road more dangerous by narrowing it, said David Simmes, deputy chief counsel for Caltrans.

“We don’t know what will go in there . . . there may be some other solution,” he said. “We are looking at other options besides a guardrail to keep the road in safe condition for people who drive responsibly.”

Geoff Wells, attorney for the Ellington family, said he believes Caltrans will build a barrier at the accident site because the agency has acknowledged there is a problem.

“There is inadequate protection at that corner for a driver that might encounter black ice,” Wells said. “A lady died, and a number of other people had near-misses. They have to do something, because it’s definitely dangerous.”