Trial expected to last more than two weeks
By Daily Press staff
Jury selection will begin Wednesday in a trial that accuses the City of West Hollywood of being negligent in its upkeep of a crosswalk where a Los Angeles man suffered permanent brain damage in a traffic accident.
The case is centered around a lawsuit which alleges the city of West Hollywood is responsible for injuries Jason Eli Sayers incurred after he was hit by a car while crossing the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Alta Loma Road.
Sayers sued the city on Dec. 6, 2001 for negligence and dangerous condition of public property. He alleges the city’s failure to maintain a flashing light system at the intersection caused him severe and permanent injuries, including brain damage.
On April 24, 2001, Sayers, then 25 years old, was walking across the intersection when he was struck by a car driven by Danielle Mason. Mason didn’t see Sayers, because the flashing safety lights in the crosswalk were not working, attorneys say.
Sayers’ attorneys — Browne Greene and Robert D. Jarchi of the Santa Monica-based Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, LLP. — will argue that workers in West Hollywood’s City Hall knew the crosswalk was dangerous for pedestrians.
As early as 1990, hundreds of people who worked in nearby offices petitioned the city’s transportation department to make the intersection safer, including those employed by Playboy Video Enterprises, Inc. and Western International Media, according to Sayers’ attorneys.
One of those working in West Hollywood’s transportation department at the time was Lucy Dyke, who is now the transportation planning manager in Santa Monica.
Lawyers will argue that West Hollywood’s City Hall knew the best solution to the problem was to install a traffic tri-light signal and was trying to compel local area businesses to pay for the traffic light. Instead, it opted to install a system with a motion sensor and flashing lights surrounding the crosswalk to alert motorists to crossing pedestrians at night, lawyers say.
In 1990, petitions were submitted to Dyke in West Hollywood’s transportation department that had been signed by 37 Western International Media employees and 43 Playboy Video Enterprises, Inc. employees asking that a crosswalk be installed in the intersection.
Four years later, Anne Mercer submitted petitions to Dyke on behalf of hundreds of employees working in the area of Alta Loma and Sunset, writing, “Our questions (sic) is, how many pedestrians must be injured (seriously or fatally) before West Hollywood takes full responsibility for the traffic in this area? We would like nothing more than to see a ‘full’ traffic light installed at this corner or at a very minimum we would like a ‘pedestrian’ signal, that stops traffic for pedestrians.”
Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, LLP., whose offices are at 100 Wilshire Blvd., are representing victims of the Farmers’ Market accident — when an elderly man drove his Buick LeSabre into the crowded market last July, killing 10 and injuring dozens of others.
The city of West Hollywood is being represented by Scott Haith, who works for the Calabasas-based law firm of Robertson & Vick. Haith couldn’t be reached for comment.
The trial is expected to last 20 days and will be heard by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Valerie Baker.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 18, 2004. Read the original PDF.