Trial expected to last more than a week in SM
By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer
SM COURTHOUSE — Lawyers here on Monday began arguing the case of a man who says the city of West Hollywood’s failure to maintain a flashing light crosswalk caused an accident that left him permanently brain damaged.
Jason Eli Sayers, then 26, was making his way across the crosswalk at Sunset Boulevard and Alta Loma Road in early 2001 when a vehicle driven by Danielle Mason struck him, tossing him 28 feet in the air. Sayers landed on his head, suffering major brain damage.
Sayers sued the city of West Hollywood on Dec. 6, 2001 for negligence and dangerous condition of public property, claiming that the motion sensor and flashing lights surrounding the crosswalk weren’t working. As a result, Mason was unable to see clearly, lawyers argued.
Both sides waived their rights for a jury trial. The case is being heard by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Valerie Baker.
Sayers’ attorneys claimed in opening arguments that a pedestrian crossing sign in the area was partially obscured by foliage and several petitions asking for safety measures at the intersection were ignored by city officials. 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 petition allegedly included 565 signatures. “(The city’s) options were clear,” said Browne Greene, of the Santa Monica-based law firm Greene, Broilett, Panish and Wheeler, LLP. “They could either fix the problem or do nothing, and they chose to do nothing.”
The city’s attorney, Scott C. Haith of the Calabasas-based law firm Robertson & Vick, argued that the responsibility for the accident falls on the driver and pedestrian, noting that the city installed a pedestrian crossing sign, a crosswalk sign and painted the crosswalk with reflective paint to prevent such accidents.
“The city’s position is that the accident was caused solely by the negligence of two people — Mason, who failed to yield to the pedestrian in the crosswalk and Mr. Sayers, who violated what all of our parents told us when we were let out of the house for the first time and that is to look both ways when you cross the street. “(Sayers) left a place of safety in front of the vehicle that had stopped for him and — without looking — stepped in front of (Mason’s) vehicle,” Haith added.
Haith further argued that the two signs near the intersection exceed CalTrans standards. A painted crosswalk is the only required safety measure.
“The pedestrian crossing sign would have been visible to Ms. Mason as she was coming up to the crosswalk,” Haith said, adding that two vehicles had stopped at the crosswalk when Mason’s vehicle approached it. Mason didn’t see Sayers, didn’t slow down and reported making eye contact with him immediately before the collision, he added. “(The stopped cars are) an additional visual cue,” Haith said. “So you had all these signs available for Ms. Mason. She said she didn’t see any of the other visual cues, but she did see the two vehicles stop and thought they were turning into a driveway. There is no driveway at the intersection.”
Attorneys for Sayers read several letters written to West Hollywood transportation official Lucy Dyke, who is now the transportation planning manager in Santa Monica.
“Today a woman was hit by a car,” one letter read. “She is the second person to be hit while crossing in the crosswalk since I’ve been here...” Another letter read, “Many of us have witnessed far too many accidents or near accidents. How many pedestrians must be injured before West Hollywood takes responsibility for the traffic in this area?”
The city conduced a study on the intersection in the early 1990s and found that of the 42 vehicles who passed through the intersection at roughly 8 p.m. one night, not one yielded to pedestrians about to enter the crosswalk. During the daytime, roughly 90 percent of the cars failed to yield to pedestrians, Sayers’ attorneys argued. They also showed that a 1997 state of California report noted that West Hollywood had “the worst pedestrian accident rate for the 98 cities in the state,” and approximately 82 accidents were reported in the area from 1988 to 1998.
The flashing light system at the crosswalk was installed in 2000, according to city officials. The flashing light system, in which a motion detector causes lights to flash along the crosswalk while it’s in use, was a method to “enhance, not correct” the safety of the intersection, Haith said.
“A blind bat couldn’t miss the crosswalk (with the blinking lights),” read a city document that lauded the installation of the blinking light system. “Although we don’t expect bats to drive down Sunset, an intoxicated bar patron might.”
Alcohol is not believed to have been a factor in the accident.
But Sayers’ lawsuit alleges that the lights weren’t working for several months prior to his accident. Haith agrees that the system malfunctioned almost as soon as it was installed. The lights began sinking into the pavement and there were underground wiring problems.
City officials say the intersection was instead marked for a traffic tri-light signal which was to be installed. The traffic signal was ultimately installed two years later. Haith said the Playboy Video Enterprise, Inc. building wasn’t occupied a portion of the time the flashing lights weren’t working, making the repairs less urgent. He also said the city would have had to pay $5,000 for repairs that would disrupt traffic and add to unrelated construction taking place at the intersection. “(The city) still had the crosswalk at the intersection,” he said. “That was reasonably safe for pedestrians.”
The case was originally scheduled for a jury trial on May 17, 2004, but was postponed by Judge Baker to allow Sayers’ lawyers more time to work on the case. The trial is expected to last eight days.
Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, LLP. also is representing victims of the Farmers’ Market tragedy, in which an elderly man behind the wheel of a Buick LaSabre drove through the crowded market last July, killing 10 and injuring dozens of others. Lawyers are suing Santa Monica City Hall.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 28, 2004. Read the original PDF.