L.A. Pays Record $4.3 Million to Settle Crash Suit

The city of Los Angeles’ massive fleet of vehicles are involved in hundreds of accidents a year, but one rush-hour crash in 1988 that left a woman paralyzed has become the costliest crash in the city’s history.

The City Council on Wednesday doled out $4.3 million to a 63-year-old woman who was critically injured after a city parks truck rear-ended her Toyota Celica on the Golden State Freeway, shoving it under a Cadillac and setting off a chain-reaction crash involving eight vehicles.

Betty Jones, a former executive secretary who was on her way to a job interview Aug. 3, 1988, suffered severe head and neck injuries, a fractured spine, broken ribs and a punctured lung. Her condition deteriorated two years later and she became paralyzed from the waist down.

The settlement is the second-largest payout ever made by the city in a lawsuit in which liability was determined by a jury, officials said. It ranks after a 1991 police shooting case in which an off-duty officer shot a Coliseum groundskeeper, Adelaido Altamirano, resulting in a $5.5-million judgment.

“I’m happy the city finally ended it,” Jones said from the nursing home where she lives. City lawyers “used every method they could to downplay my injuries. As for the man who hit me, I have no bad feelings for him.”

The driver, Ronald Schott, was not disciplined by the Department of Recreation and Parks, although he has been transferred to another position. When he appeared for his deposition, attorneys said, he broke down in tears and explained that he was not able to stop his truck in time when traffic ahead of him on the southbound Golden State Freeway came to a sudden halt.

In approving the payment, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said Wednesday that Schott had clearly been driving too fast. Yaroslavsky, chairman of the city’s Budget and Finance Committee, urged his colleagues to create a hot line for the public to report reckless city drivers and post stickers advertising the phone number on municipal vehicles.

“I don’t think we pay enough attention to this aspect of our liability,” Yaroslavsky said. “Most employees are responsible drivers but one $4.3-million judgment can ruin your whole year.”

Jones’ attorney, Steven Freeburg, contended that no safety program would have prevented the accident.

“There wasn’t drinking on the job. (Schott) wasn’t rushing because he was late. He was on the freeway, didn’t notice what was going on in front of him and plowed into the cars ahead of him,” Freeburg said.

The vehicle that Schott was driving, a large truck with an attached crane, made the accident even worse, Freeburg said.

“He hit her car and because of the weight of his truck he pushed her under two other cars,” Freeburg said. “It was like she was at the bottom of a three-layer pancake.”

While admitting responsibility for many of Jones’ injuries, the city argued unsuccessfully during the April trial that it was not responsible for her paralysis, attributing the condition to a cancerous tumor. Medical experts who testified on Jones’ behalf said her paralysis resulted from the trauma she received in the accident.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Jones for $5.5 million, far in excess of the $381,764 in medical expenses she had already incurred and the $1.7 million in estimated future medical bills.

The city challenged the award, which was later reduced by Superior Court Judge Jan Pluim to $3.85 million plus interest and miscellaneous costs. The city lost an appeal and decided that further appeals would also fail, Deputy City Atty. John F. Hernandez said in a letter to council members. The city will pay Jones $4,319,289.

Traffic accidents account for about one-third of the city’s civil liability cases, officials say. In 1992, there were 426 traffic accident cases in which the city paid $13.3 million, according to city records.

The city has a program to check the driving records of employees who use city vehicles but officials say it is extremely out-of-date. Some agencies such as the Police and Sanitation departments, conduct training sessions for drivers but there is no widespread driver safety program, officials said.

“I hope that drivers are aware of the financial impact of their being negligent in the operation of their vehicles,” Senior Assistant City Atty. Thomas C. Hokinson said. “It takes a case like this to draw attention it.”

The city intends to computerize its liability records so that city departments will know more clearly what types of cases are causing the most financial drain on the city.

City Atty. James K. Hahn, meanwhile, has increased the number of lawyers in the Civil Liability Division to handle what he called a litigation explosion. In addition, city departments this month appointed risk management coordinators to help reduce liability.

“Accidents happen,” Hokinson said. “But we have to do everything we do to bring the numbers down.”