A student at the University of California San Diego is suing the school after she was hit by a car during an anti-Trump protest that involved blocking traffic on a freeway.
Mariana Flores, a sophomore at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), is suing the school over an allegedly school-organized anti-Trump protest effort that involved blocking traffic on a nearby freeway. During the protest, which took place shortly after Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the 2016 presidential election, Flores was hit by a car. The collision crushed her pelvis, fractured her leg, and caused other minor injuries.
“As an emergency vehicle was attempting to shut down Interstate-5 by driving in an “S” formation across the southbound lanes, the driver hit Flores, crushing her pelvis, fracturing her leg, and causing other serious injuries,” the UCSD student newspaper report on the accident read.
In her lawsuit against UCSD, Flores blames the university for failing to put a stop to the protest before it put students at risk for injury. “Plaintiff was participating in a citizen protest that had been organized by the University of California, San Diego and/or the University of California Regents,” the complaint states. “The protest continued all over campus for hours and was never stopped, controlled, or refrained by the County of San Diego, City of San Diego, State of California, University of California Regents or the University of California, San Diego.”
“We think it’s a case of shared responsibility of the school, Mariana, and the driver, and we’re not saying that anybody is without fault or fault-free. We think other people bear some responsibility as well,” Flores’ attorney, Gene Sullivan said in a comment to UCSD’s student newspaper.
The jury will decide at trial how responsible Maria was for her own injuries. Flores could receive damages from the university if the jury decides that UCSD was partially at fault for the accident.