City Failed to Secure Farmers Market, Claim Alleges

By Blair Clarkson
Staff Writer

Jan. 15 -- The failure to block Arizona Avenue during the Downtown Farmers Market led to a tragedy last July that left 10 dead and 63 injured, according to a claim filed against the City and the Bayside District Corporation Wednesday.

Filed on behalf of seven victims injured and the estates of three people killed when an elderly driver’s run-away car plowed through the crowded market, the claims are a mandatory first step before any of the victims can file civil law suits against the City for personal injury or wrongful death.

"A failure to put up bollards or barrier guards on Arizona Street… created a dangerous condition on public property,” Geoffrey Wells, an attorney with Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, LLP, said during a press conference in front of City Hall.

“When you have people in the market and you don't have adequate protection for those people, then that's a dangerous condition,” said Wells, whose firm won the highest product liability verdict in history at $4.9 billion.

By failing to take the necessary precaution of putting up metal barrier posts on either end of Arizona Street, the City allowed 87-year-old George Russell Weller's vehicle to barrel through the crowded market unobstructed, Wells said.

"We believe this was a completely preventable accident,” he said. “They have traffic engineers that are trained to analyze and provide safety measures for the public, and they completely dropped the ball."

Standing in front of three large color photographs of the bollards used on Wilshire Boulevard and Third Street to protect the Promenade, Wells repeatedly insisted that such moveable barriers should have been in place, instead of "wood sawhorses that didn't do anything."

"We will take depositions from city engineers to find out if it was a cost saving matter,” Wells said. “Engineers must take responsible steps to prevent this exact type of catastrophic situation."

"The City and Bayside were also negligent," Wells wrote in a claim summary,
"because they failed to provide adequate warning signs that would have put
drivers on notice that they were approaching a closed-off area and were
required to take a detour around the Market."

Several family members of those killed and two injured women represented in
the claims stood alongside Wells at the press conference and afterwards spoke to reporters.

Bertha Lattier, the mother of Leroy Lattier, 54, clutched a framed photo of her son, the first victim struck and killed by Weller’s 1992 Buick LaSabre.

"Santa Monica will put up barriers so other people's lives can be saved, because there's nothing they can do for Leroy,” she said. “The damage has already been done. You can't bring him back. But now for other people, something can be done."

"A barrier would have stopped (Weller) from driving into the market," added Lattier, who traveled here from Shreveport, Louisiana with her daughter, and Leroy Lattier's sister, Dolores Kesse. "If the barriers were in place, I'd still have my son."

A Farmers' Market vendor then stepped out of the crowd of assembled reporters and said he was standing next to Lattier when he was hit. "The car never stopped, never hit the brakes. If there were safety devices this," he pleaded, pointing to the photos of bollards used on the Promenade, "this would not have happened."

Bay-area resident David Gong, who lost his sister, Diana Gong McCarthy, 41, and brother-in-law, Kevin McCarthy, 51, in the accident, is still coming to grips with the tragedy.

"I have a lot of mixed feelings about all that has happened," he said. "I feel for Mr. Weller and his family for all that they're going through. The last thing I want to see happen is that this gets repeated."

Echoing Gong's sentiments, Dina Richter, 30, said, "I don't want anyone else to experience this. My goal is to ensure that the City will do something to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Asked what she remembers from that day, Richter, an LA-area high school English teacher who broke her elbow and shoulder, dislocated her hip, and required plastic surgery for facial injuries, responded, "I saw the car, and my face hitting the pavement, and baby carriages landing on me."

"I'm one of the fortunate people," she added. "I'm still alive."

In addition to Richter and the families of Leroy Lattier and Kevin and Diana McCarthy, the claims also represent injury victims Sandra Ellen Bacal, 47; Sara Dobbins, 71; Benny Gong, 65; Holley Hankinson, 42; Ilona Lettrich, 60; and Olivia Wun, 19.

The deadline for victims to file claims against any government agency is Friday the 16th, six months after the accident. The City then has 45 days to respond.

Wells expects the City and Bayside to reject the filings. "Once the claim is rejected by the City we can then file a [civil] lawsuit."