We all know that there is a risk anytime someone gets into a motor vehicle that he or she will not make it to his or her destination unscathed. When most people think about injury inducing incidents involving cars and trucks it is assumed that a crash of some sort is involved. This is of course not always the case however. In August 2011, four individuals lost their lives when the vehicles in which they were occupying became caught in street flooding.

The incident occurred on Washington Boulevard in Highland Park after a summer storm dropped a lot of rain in a short period of time. As a result of the sudden rain a portion of the road flooded leaving it 9 feet underwater. It was this point in the road that a vehicle containing a mother and her two girls encountered. Unable to get out of the vehicle, all three died. The occupant of another vehicle, a 72-year-old woman managed to get out of her car but was swept away in the floodwater. She too sadly died.

Recently, the families of the deceased filed a wrongful death lawsuit against multiple defendants, including the city of Pittsburgh. The complaint alleges that despite knowing about issues that portion of the street regularly encountered after rain, the defendants failed to take steps to fix the problem. Reportedly the area has been plagued by the issue for decades. In 1951 another woman lost her life under circumstances similar to the mother and her daughters.

It is not clear how much is being sought in damages. What is clear is that there is not enough money in the world that could adequately compensate for the lives lost. A successful lawsuit of this sort could make it easier for those left behind to move forward with their lives without their beloved family members, however.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Fatal flooding in 2011 on Washington Boulevard brings suit against many," Moriah Balingit, Feb. 2, 2013