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# Residents offer opinions on city’s tragedy
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/residents-offer-opinions-on-citys-tragedy/
- Published: 2003-07-22T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:36:47.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

(Editor’s note: The Santa Monica Daily Press has opened Q-Line this week to give an opportunity to community members to share their feelings and thoughts about last week’s tragedy at the farmers market. We’ll run your responses daily throughout the week.) ■ “Certainly the blame has to be put on the senior citizen who was driving the car that went through the barrier, or so-called barrier, at the farmers market. But the blame also has to be put on the City of Santa Monica because the city should have provided a better obstruction for cars to go into that farmers market. There were no barriers there. The only thing is a flimsy sign that anybody could knock over with their hand and this is reprehensible. The whole incident was an accident looking for a place to happen and it did happen and you can’t blame all old people who drive, although there are a lot that are bad. I think the Santa Monica Council and all the city planners needs to look at this accident very closely because after they get finished being sued by everyone that was injured in this accident, the city is going to go bankrupt. And it is their own blasted fault. They should have had barriers there or had it in a place where people couldn’t drive through it. The city needs to take a closer look at providing security for people that go to that farmers market. They’re going to loose business on this because people are going to be very afraid to go there.” ■ “It’s incredibly sad that many people in the media are upset that the police department did not arrest Mr. Weller. Many of them, it is quite obvious, know nothing about the Constitution of the United States. Before you can charge someone with a crime, you have to have completed the majority of your investigation. The police department did a phenomenal job considering the magnitude of what they found. The fire department also did a fantastic job. We should salute those men and women who risked their lives and in the safety of the community, do it on a daily basis without complaint.” ■ “I just hope that they find enough evidence to keep him from ever getting back behind the wheel of another car again. I’m just wondering if we know of any other accidents. We know of two, one major and one minor, that he has had with this acceleration of this gas pedal. How many others don’t we know about? Maybe if he’s bargained so that others don’t find out about them, I don’t know. Has anybody thought that he was possibly using his cane to push the accelerator and he got rattled and couldn’t retrieve it? I’m just putting it out there.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 22, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072203.pdf?ref=smdp.com)