The mother of one of six young people killed in a 2023 crash on Tacoma’s Tideflats claims in a recently filed lawsuit that the intersection where the wreck occurred was long known to be dangerous and officials failed to make it safer.
Javan Runnels, 22, was one of six victims — all in town from Arizona for an Amway convention — traveling in a Kia Forte that ran a red light on southbound Alexander Avenue before it was struck by a BMW SUV that had driven through a yellow light on eastbound State Route 509, authorities said.
A seventh person in the Kia suffered serious injuries in the July 16, 2023, crash, which was the state’s deadliest in more than two decades. Two people in the BMW were uninjured, according to Pierce County prosecutors, who later determined there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges related to the wreck…