State pays $2.75 million to Monroe woman in highway crash

MALTBY — Washington has agreed to pay $2.75 million to a woman who was seriously hurt in a rollover crash involving a state Department of Transportation vehicle on Highway 522.

On March 5, 2018, Kara Janneh of Monroe was driving her Jeep Cherokee east on the highway near Maltby with her toddler son in the back. Her lawsuit said she didn’t have time to stop when a Washington State Department of Transportation truck made an illegal U-turn. Her vehicle flew into the air and rolled over twice.

Her son escaped serious injury but the lawsuit said Janneh suffered serious harm including a traumatic brain injury.

In 2019, she sued the state Department of Transportation.

In September, the state conceded the crash was its fault in court filings. Shortly after, the lawsuit was settled for $2.75 million, The Daily Herald reported.

In an email, a WSDOT spokesperson confirmed the settlement, but declined to comment further.

The stretch of two-lane highway between Paradise Lake Road near Maltby and the Snohomish River Bridge is known for serious crashes.

In 2014, a couple in one car and a baby in another died in a head-on crash, prompting a lawsuit that called the highway “inherently dangerous.” The state settled that case for $3 million without admitting liability.

In August, prosecutors charged a woman with vehicular homicide in a 2020 crash that killed one and seriously injured another on the highway.

A major transportation package passed at the state Legislature this year includes millions to widen Highway 522 in that area.