Caller Reported Missing Stop Sign Before Fatal Crash

The family of a pregnant high school teacher who was killed on her way to a doctor’s appointment has sued the Stephenson County (Ill.) sheriff’s office, claiming a dispatcher failed to follow up on a motorist’s report of a missing stop sign, leading to the woman’s death. Sarah Kamp, 32, died when she drove through a rural intersection last May and struck another vehicle, just 16 minutes after a caller reported that the intersection’s usual stop sign was missing. According to the lawsuit, an unnamed sheriff’s dispatcher fielded the 5:51 a.m. call and told the citizen, “someone would be out there to take care of it.” Instead, the dispatcher handled other telephone calls and never made a call to the county highway department. At 6 a.m. the dispatcher went off-duty, and never notified the on-coming shift of dispatchers about the problem. The accident occurred seven minutes later. Highway department officials say they found the stop sign in a nearby field, apparently blown away by a severe storm the night before. A department head said crews routinely check county roads for safety problems after big storms. In this case, a highway crew was second on-scene at the accident because they were in the area checking the roadways. The lawsuit asks for $4 million and other damages. Read more about the incident here.