City calls into question credibility of witnesses
WEST LA — It’s now up to a jury to decide whether or not City Hall will have to pay out millions of dollars in damages to an elderly couple suing Big Blue Bus for negligence following closing arguments on Thursday.
The civil suit was filed in June of 2004 by Haroun Mehdipour, 81, and his wife, Parvin, who claim the quality of their lives together has been severely diminished since a Big Blue Bus operator failed to follow proper operating procedure and ran over Mehdipour’s left arm, ripping off the skin and causing severe damage to the arteries.
The man’s arm was eventually amputated at the shoulder and his family said he suffers from memory loss. The couple attempted to settle the case for $7 million, but that offer was rejected, according to a report from the City Attorney’s Office.
The jury could render a verdict as early as today.
Lawyers representing City Hall said there is no proof that a Big Blue Bus was even involved in the accident, let alone evidence showing a bus driver was negligent. Deputy City Attorney Lance Gams suggested in his closing statement that Mehdipour was most likely to blame after he tripped while running after a bus that had already pulled away.
“It is very hard for me to say this, but the person who made the decision to chase after the bus was Mr. Mehdipour,” Gams said to the jury during his roughly one-hour closing. “He decided, for whatever reason, that he was going to get on that bus.”
The accident occurred on May 5, 2004, around 10:15 or 10:20 a.m., on the corner of Barrington Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.
Attorneys for Mehdipour claim that he was trying to hail down a Big Blue Bus, walking alongside it while banging on the windows and hollering at the driver. Failing to look in his blindspots before pulling away from the curb, the driver, who has not been identified, slammed the bus doors closed.
Somehow Mehdipour was knocked to the ground or tripped, hitting his head on the pavement causing a blackout. Unable to react, his arm was run over by what witnesses said was a bus.
Browne Greene, an attorney representing the Mehdipours, said at least one witness saw the accident clearly enough to confirm that a Big Blue Bus was leaving the scene of the accident and was most likely involved.
A bio-mechanical engineer hired by the Mehdipours testified that injuries sustained were the result of being run over by a bus, or what Greene called “a 40-foot, 29,000-pound instrument of … death.” “From day one, they (the city of Santa Monica) has not been willing to step up to the plate. They’ve been in denial,” said Greene, who invoked the spirit of former President Abraham Lincoln as he spoke about the need for candor in the courtroom. “While that has gone on, Mr. Mehdipour has been deprived of the use of his two arms, arms which he could hold his (six) grandchildren with, get out of bed in the morning with … eat his meals using utensils, two arms needed for everything.”
Greene said that medical care for Mehdipour will cost more than $2.6 million over the next seven years. The Mehdipours are asking for the jury to award money for medical expenses, as well as for pain and suffering and the loss of the life they once knew.
Gams said Big Blue Bus never ignored responsibility. He said the agency didn’t know about the accident until almost a month after it occurred, when lawyers for the Mehdipours requested city officials save all evidence and surveillance form the day of the accident.
In complying with the request, Gams said the bus company could find no record of the accident and, therefore, City Hall rejected the Mehdipours’ claim.
In his closing statement, Gams said the jury should be more focused on the credibility of the witnesses brought forth by Greene and his team of attorneys. Gams said statements from the key eyewitnesses taken just after the accident contradict testimony given in court and suggested their recollection of the event could have been influenced by experts hired by Greene.
The witness said he saw Mehdipour pounding on the windows of the bus, hollering at the driver to stop. The driver allegedly slammed the bus door on Mehdipour, trapping his arm, and drove away, Mehdipour was dragged under the bus, where his left arm was crushed, the witness said.
According to statements taken by the Los Angeles Police Department hours after the accident, Mehdipour, with his wife and daughter translating, said he was hit by a large, light colored car, Gams said, further evidence that a Big Blue Bus was not involved.
Greene said Mehdipour was in shock and under the influence of medication that altered his thoughts. Greene went on to blame the LAPD for a “sloppy” investigation, which he said was conducted 12 hours after the accident had occurred, too late to gather crucial physical evidence. He also said testimony given to the police was, therefore, unreliable.
Gams countered by saying that at no time during Mehdipour’s conversation with detectives did his wife or daughter tell police that they felt their father was not coherent and that his statements shouldn’t be entered into the record of the accident.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 10, 2006. Read the original PDF.