CITY HALL — The City Council has agreed to pay $175,000 for medical expenses and other damages incurred in two separate accidents involving passengers on its Big Blue Buses.
The council approved the payments Tuesday, along with an agreement to pay up to $75,000 for the construction of a driveway for a home at 161 Ocean Park Blvd., at the site of an old rail line.
‘A FAVORABLE RESULT’ A jury recently awarded Betty Robinson $100,000 after she fell on a Big Blue Bus and hit her head on Nov. 29, 2004. Three weeks later, the then 80-year-old Robinson fell while walking and broke her hip, which required surgery, according to Deputy City Attorney Debra Kanoff.
Robinson’s attorney claims she suffered brain damage when she fell on the bus, which affected her balance, causing her to fall and injure her hip.
“It was a favorable result,” Kanoff said of the jury’s award. “When you have an 80-year-old woman fall on a bus, sustaining a head injury and claiming brain damage and a hip fracture, $100,000 is not a bad result at all.”
Kanoff said Robinson’s attorney wanted to settle the case for $800,000.
“In his closing arguments he had the jury add up all figures (of the cost of accident) and it amounted to around $11 million,” Kanoff said.
Robinson’s attorney could not be reached.
WATCH YOUR STEP Joel Lipscher was exiting a Big Blue Bus in downtown Los Angeles in November 2003 when he fell and broke his right ankle, according to Jeanette Schachtner, chief deputy city attorney.
Schachtner said a settlement was reached in the amount of $75,000, with approximately $35,000 of that intended to cover Lipscher’s ankle surgery.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 28, 2006. Read the original PDF.