Milton Will Pay $10 Million to Family of Yale Senior Killed by Roadside Planter

Milton, Georgia has agreed to pay $10 million to the family of Joshua Chang, a Yale University senior who died after his car crashed into a concrete planter along Batesville Road during Thanksgiving break in 2016, closing out a legal battle that stretched nearly a decade. The Milton City Council approved the settlement, according to council records released the week of August 25, 2026, which reported that damages were eventually settled at $10 million.

According to WSB-TV, Chang was driving 19 mph, 38 mph below the 45 mph speed limit, when he hit the planter, per the police report. Family attorneys said Chang swerved off the road likely to avoid hitting an animal before crashing into the concrete decorative planter, which had been built decades before Milton was even incorporated as a city. Chang, a senior at Yale at the time, died at the scene.

The planter itself was an unusual roadside fixture. As detailed by the Expert Institute, it measured 7 to 8 feet in diameter and 1 to 2 feet in height, built from a large commercial tractor tire encased in stone and concrete and filled with dirt, sitting roughly five to six feet off the edge of Batesville Road. Legal filings on the crash sequence, per court records reviewed by Justia Law, described how Chang turned his wheel sharply, left the paved lane, slid for more than 60 feet across the grass shoulder, then flipped and landed directly on top of the planter. City officials have said the fixture had been involved in no previous accidents before Chang's death.

A Decade of Litigation and a Rejected Settlement Offer

The Chang family sued Milton for wrongful death, and a jury ruled in their favor in June 2023, finding the city 93 percent at fault and ordering Milton to pay $32.5 million in damages. Police crash reconstruction and court records confirmed that toxicology, phone records, and vehicle inspections ruled out alcohol, drugs, speeding, reckless driving, mechanical failure, or cellphone use as contributing factors, according to 11Alive.

The jury's award came after years of missed chances to resolve the case. Before the 2023 trial, the Chang family made seven separate settlement offers ranging from $1.75 million to $10 million, all rejected by Milton's insurer, the Georgia Interlocal Risk Management Agency, which held sole settlement authority at the time, per Appen Media. Under Georgia Code § 51-12-14, the family also sought substantial pre-judgment interest on top of the jury award because the defense had rejected their pre-trial offer, according to the Champion Firm. The Georgia Court of Appeals initially upheld the judgment, and Milton officials appealed the jury verdict as the case dragged on.

Georgia Supreme Court Ruling Shifted the Legal Ground

The case took a dramatic turn in March 2026, when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in City of Milton v. Chang to vacate the appellate judgment that had upheld the verdict. The court held that a city's statutory duty to maintain safe roads applies to active travel lanes and does not automatically extend to roadside areas during emergency maneuvers, according to legal filings cited by Justia Law.

The stakes extended well beyond Milton. Dozens of Georgia municipalities, including Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and Cedartown, joined amicus filings supporting Milton's appeals, worried that holding cities liable for hazards outside active travel lanes could reshape municipal liability statewide, per FOX 5 Atlanta. The original $35 million jury award had represented roughly 85 percent of Milton's entire annual operating budget at the time of the 2023 verdict, according to a municipal tort liability analysis, underscoring why the city fought the judgment so aggressively.

Settlement Splits the Bill Between City and Insurer

With the high court's ruling narrowing roadside liability and injecting fresh uncertainty into the case, both sides ultimately settled for $10 million, matching the amount the Chang family had offered years earlier. Milton will split the payment with its insurer: the city will pay $3,333,333.33 directly from its municipal fund balance, while the Georgia Interlocal Risk Management Agency will cover the remaining $6,666,666.67, per Appen Media's breakdown of the settlement.

Before his death, Chang had been the 2013 salutatorian at Woodstock High School, where he built a working bicycle out of bamboo, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. He went on to attend Yale on a full scholarship, double-majoring in mechanical engineering and economics. The concrete planter that stood along Batesville Road for decades has since been removed.