On July 19, 2010, plaintiff’s decedent Michael Amdahl, 46, a construction worker, was traveling on southbound Bagdad Highway in the city of Twentynine Palms, an unstriped desert highway measuring 22 feet wide, when his 1997 Nissan Sentra collided head-on with a northbound Dodge Caravan operated by Arie Vanhofwegen. Amdahl was airlifted from the scene to the nearby Naval Base hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy ultimately detected the presence of marijuana and methamphetamine, and a pipe was found at the scene in Amdahl’s vehicle. Amdahl’s daughter, Alisha Walker, sued Vanhofwegen and the city of Twentynine Palms. Walker alleged that Vanhofwegen was negligent in the operation of his vehicle and that the city was negligent in the maintenance of the highway, creating a dangerous condition of public property. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that the highway was dangerous because it was not striped and because both Amdahl and Vanhofwegen had markedly reduced sight distance when they were near the crest of the highway. Thus, counsel argued that the accident would not have occurred if the highway had been striped for 1,000 feet, at a cost of less than $3,000. Plaintiff’s counsel noted that the investigating police report placed Amdahl on what would have been his side of the roadway and on what would have been the center line, if there was one, with Vanhofwegen a foot or so into Amdahl’s lane of travel. The plaintiff’s traffic engineering expert testified that he concurred with the findings of the police report, and called the roadway a dangerous condition. The expert also testified that with the sand blowing and covering the bad shoulder of the roadway, drivers would tend to drive toward the middle of the roadway, near the center line. As such, the expert opined that if the highway was striped, both drivers would have kept to their respective sides. The city’s traffic engineering expert opined that the roadway was not dangerous and that striping was unnecessary. The city’s accident reconstruction expert placed Amdahl on the wrong side of the highway, barely into Vanhofwegen’s pathway. In addition, the city’s expert toxicologist could not say when the marijuana and/or methamphetamine was smoked and/or ingested, but testified that they would have affected Amdahl’s ability to safely drive. Vanhofwegen claimed that he was on the right side of the highway and that he did see Amdahl for a split second before the collision, but that Amdahl was looking down. Vanhofwegen’s accident reconstruction expert agreed with his counterpart for the city, that Amdahl was on the wrong side of the roadway and that Vanhofwegen was entirely on his side of the highway., Amdahl sustained multiple traumatic from the head-on collision and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. He was 46. Plaintiff’s counsel noted that paternity was established during discovery, as Amdahl was not named as Walker’s father on her birth certificate. Amdahl’s twin sister confirmed the decedent was Walker’s biological father, and claimed Walker and Amdahl reunited three years prior to the subject accident, after being separated for more than 20 years. Thus, Walker, as Amdahl’s biological daughter, sought recovery of damages for her father’s wrongful death.