San Francisco jury has awarded $210,000 to a man struck by a Municipal Railway bus whose driver had an earlier accident that cost the city $850,000.
The Superior Court jury’s verdict against the city came Friday after a four-day trial on the lawsuit by Lyle Johnson, 50, of San Francisco.
Johnson was hit at Second and Howard streets May 16, 1996. His attorney said yesterday that the Muni driver, Jacqueline Williams, acknowledged under questioning that she had been looking toward the bus zone at the moment her 15 Third Street articulated bus hit Johnson.
Johnson suffered “a non-repairable tear in his shoulder and continues to be in pain to this day,” said his attorney, Ian Zimmerman. “He is significantly limited in the kinds of work he can do now and is currently looking for work.”
Zimmerman said the verdict was $70,000 more than the amount recommended by a mediator who heard the case late last year. The city’s Public Transportation Commission, which reviews all proposed settlements involving the Muni, had rejected the proposed $140,000 settlement, he said.
“When you figure in court costs and interest, the commission’s decision not to take the mediator’s suggestion resulted in the city spending approximately $100,000 more than it would have otherwise,” Zimmerman said.
Welton Flynn, president of the Public Transportation Commission, did not return a phone call.
Neither Williams nor her attorney was available for comment. Muni officials had no comment on Williams’ current driving status.
In April, the Board of Supervisors approved an $850,000 settlement for a 16-year-old girl, Victoria Lee, who was dragged 100 feet on O’Farrell Street by a bus that Williams was driving May 6, 1996.
Ten days after that incident, Williams was in the accident in which her bus hit Johnson. Muni officials have said Williams was disciplined in 1996 but decline to say what the punishment was.
Police records show that in addition to those two accidents, Williams was in another bus accident on December 29, 1998, in which her bus hit a bicyclist on Kearny Street. The bicyclist received cuts on his left elbow and complained of hand pain.
Williams was in a fourth accident as well between Jan. 1, 1997, and Jan. 31 of this year, records show. Her name was on a list of 236 drivers with two or more avoidable accidents in that period. The Muni, citing privacy laws, declined to give details of the accidents involving Williams or any of the other drivers.
The Muni’s general manager, Michael Burns, has said he is making it a high priority to reduce the Muni’s accident rate, which is considerably higher than that in some comparable cities, such as Boston and Seattle.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/09/09/MN38356.DTL