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# Elderly woman paid $700K after bus crash
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/elderly-woman-paid-700k-after-bus-crash/
- Published: 2004-12-21T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:49:10.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Crime, Sunset Park, #archive-import

*Witnesses said Amalia Hernandez flew 30 feet in the air after being struck by a Big Blue Bus on Ocean Park Boulevard last year*

SUNSET PARK — Nearly two years after she was struck by a Big Blue Bus while crossing Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica, 80-year-old Amalia Hernandez accepted $700,000 this month to drop her lawsuit against City Hall.

Hernandez was carrying a birthday cake for her son when a Big Blue Bus turned left off of 17th Street and hit her in the crosswalk. The impact broke her left wrist and right kneecap, and knocked out her two front teeth, according to court records.

Bus driver Candice Hayes reportedly said, “Oh my God, I didn’t see her!” immediately after hitting Hernandez, according to passenger Sahar Sajedi. Another five witnesses also riding on the No. 8 bus said they saw Hernandez walk up to the intersection and wait for the “walk” sign to appear before she started across the street.

“All the passengers could do was watch in horror as Ms. Hernandez was propelled 30 feet in the air,” attorney William Chapman wrote in court documents.

The bus driver denied ever admitting guilt in the crash, and City Hall initially fought the negligence lawsuit, charging in court papers that Hernandez “failed to use due, adequate, reasonable or any care for her safety.” A settlement was reached ear-lier this month and approved last week in a closed-session meeting of the City Council.

“This was an unusually bad injury, of course,” City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said Monday. “I believe there were third-party witnesses who said that it seemed that neither side saw the other. We would of course expect people to check the street before they walk into the crosswalk.”

Once the owner of a Mexican restaurant on Pico Boulevard, Hernandez frequented a shoe store and bakery in Sunset Park. Although the January 2003 collision put her in the hospital for eight days, during which time she suffered from a severe drop in blood pressure and hematoma, Hernandez has since recovered, Chapman said.

“She was very fortunate,” added Chapman, who said he represented Hernandez on a 40 percent contingency rate, meaning he took $280,000 of the $700,000 settlement. “Her injuries were severe, but she’s recovered. As normal as normal gets when you’re 80 and you’ve suffered fairly significant orthopedic injuries.”

According to the terms of the settlement, City Hall is to pay $500,000 and its insurance carrier another $200,000\. Hernandez reportedly accrued $150,000 in medical bills from the crash.

Jonathan Lackey, a senior liability claims adjuster for City Hall, said the city had received 165 claims for damages related to the Big Blue Bus this year alone. The claims are from pedestrians, passengers and other motorists, and range from mere dollars into the millions, Lackey added.

“It’s the spectrum, depending on who’s in the accident and who their lawyer is,” Lackey said. “We’ve had claims for damaged pantyhose. It really varies.”

Meanwhile, merchants and residents near the busy commercial strip on Ocean Park Boulevard in Sunset Park are pushing City Hall for stronger safety measures.

Two pedestrians were taken to the hospital earlier this month after being struck by a car while crossing Ocean Park Boulevard at 18th Street, just days after merchants asked city officials for new solutions to the dangerous intersection. Currently, the intersections of Ocean Park Boulevard and both 16th and 18th streets, neither of which have stoplights, have crosswalks with painted stripes, neon-yellow pedestrian crossing signs and flashing lights that can be activated by a button.

The intersection of Ocean Park Boulevard and 17th Street has a stoplight, but that doesn’t necessarily make it safer. Lucy Dyke, the city’s transportation manager, said most accidents occur at stop-light intersections. This year alone, there have been nearly 100 pedestrian-versus-vehicle accidents, according to police, who cautioned that crosswalks can provide a false sense of security.

Hernandez likely would agree, as her encounter with the Big Blue Bus is at the heart of a commonly used cliché.

As Chapman argued in court papers, “To describe an unimaginably large force, we employ the analogy of ‘like getting hit by a bus.’ To caution against taking life for granted and to signify the fragility of our earthly existence, we remind each other of the possibility of ‘getting hit by a bus.’ Indeed, mothers would insist on their children donning clean underwear in the event they ‘get hit by a bus.’”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/122104-01_01-7.jpg)

A 2003 police photo, contained in court documents, shows Amalia Hernandez, now 80, shortly after she was struck by a Big Blue Bus in Sunset Park. (Photo: John Wood/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 21, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/122104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)