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It is lucky that no one was hurt, but someone could easily die in such a collapse. Should that happen, is there anyone legally responsible?

The news coverage talks extensively about how “this should be patched up soon”, but somehow I don’t see allegations of who should be responsible — which is a little surprising.

J Li
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On the face of it, this appears to be due to landslide triggered by a violent storm; in legal terms, an "Act of God" for which no one is responsible.

There are individuals/corperations/entities who could be partially responsible; however, it is important to note that Highway 1 is old. Its construction began in 1934. Roads don't last forever, especially seaside roads.

Potentially responsible people include:

  1. Road builders, if shoddy or substandard construction contributed to the collapse.
  2. Engineers, if road was of unsound design which contributed to the collapse (note that the seaside location was almost certainly a design requirement that was worked around).
  3. Road Maintainers (currently CalTrans, the state transportation department): If poor or inadequate maintenance lead to the collapse.

However, there is at the current moment no evidence that suggest any of the above failed in their duties.

sharur
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