MILTON, Ga. — The City of Milton has been ordered to pay $35 million to the parents of Joshua Chang, who died in November 2016 after hitting a concrete planter off Batesville Road.
A senior at Yale University at the time, the 21-year-old Chang was visiting home in Canton during Thanksgiving break.
Chang was on his way back to Canton when he swerved on Batesville Road, believed to be dodging a deer or vehicle, and hit a planter on an unpaved shoulder at the entrance to the Little River Farms event venue. The planter, 3 feet high and 8.5 feet in diameter, was made of a tractor tire encased in stone and concrete.
Chang was still alive when EMTs arrived, but he died at the scene. According to the medical examiner’s report, he died of an aortic transection caused by blunt force trauma sustained in the crash.
Chang’s parents, John Chang and Rebecca Zhu, argued that if Milton had removed the planter from the shoulder, as required by its own ordinances, their son would have been able to safely bring his vehicle to a stop and would not have died that night.
According to the State Court of Fulton County records, Chang was driving under the speed limit. He was neither using his cell phone nor intoxicated.
The City of Milton’s defense rested on sovereign immunity, the state’s constitutional doctrine intended to insulate municipalities from lawsuits. But it did not hold up.
The verdict, in favor of Chang’s parents, was delivered June 15.
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