Dozens of crash victims applying for assistance
Theresa Breglia’s remains will be flown back to her family on the East coast this week, nearly three weeks after she was killed in the July 16 Farmers Market crash.
While some of the delay was because it took more than a week to locate Breglia’s next of kin, the more pressing issue has been the lack of money for her family.
But not anymore. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce set up a victims’assistance fund in the wake of the accident intended to help victims and their families. Committee members are expected today to approve the nearly $5,000 cost of transporting Breglia to New Jersey and having her buried in a family plot there.
Breglia’s case is one of many being handled by the fund’s committee, which has raised nearly $100,000 and is distributing it to those in need.
After 17 days in the coroner’s office and a few more with an embalmer, Breglia’s body will return to her native state of New Jersey on Wednesday, officials hope. The fund is paying the entire bill, from the $1,500 casket to the $500 airfare and the $1,100 funeral home charge.
Linda Tisherman, former president of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is doing more than just raising money for the victims and their families.
“We’re not only utilizing the funds,” said Tisherman, who also is one of the funds’ first points of contact with the public. “We’re utilizing the community.”
Tisherman pointed to Melissa Hope Greenstein, of Vermont, a registered nurse who was visiting her sister July 16 and thought it would be fun to check out the Santa Monica Farmers Market.
For the past three weeks, Greenstein has been treated in three different area hospitals for a broken pelvis, a broken left lumbar and a broken left foot. Her spleen was removed and doctors say she won’t walk for three months or longer.
With Greentstein’s mother and aunt visiting from out of town, Tisherman said Yellow Cab pitched in and donated vouchers so the family could commute between their hotels and the hospitals Greenstein was treated in.
And now, on the day of her release from Cedars-Sinai, the fund is buying Greenstein an airplane ticket so she can finally go home.
Dr. Mike Gruning, president of the Chamber of Commerce, is working on another case. He is helping the family of Gloria Gonzalez, a Venice woman who died at the market, recoup the nearly $4,000 they spent on having her body flown to Mexico.
While the chamber works out arrangements for Breglia, Greenstein and Gonzalez, Tisherman said there are many others out there that have contacted her and are in the process of applying for assistance.
One is Annie Fisher, an elderly woman whose husband is disabled. She needs surgery for a broken ankle and knee caused by the crash. Another is Sandra Becall, of Topanga, whose shoulder was broken when 86-year-old Russell Weller, of Santa Monica, drove through the crowded market, leaving 10 dead and close to 80 injured.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2003. Read the original PDF.