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# Santa Monicans offer their opinions on the city’s tragedy
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monicans-offer-their-opinions-on-the-citys-tragedy/
- Published: 2003-07-21T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:35:49.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Promenade, #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 farmer’s market. We’ll run your responses daily throughout the week.) ■ “I watched all the stuff crashing down. I watched the guy have the 3-year-old girl on his fruit stand trying to revive her. I watched him pass her on to this guy that came and said ‘give her to me.’ As he turned, he had the girl in front of me. I watched that girl take her last breath and just leave. I am 40 years old and I refuse to get a driver’s license because I have three types of arthritis in my entire body... The reason I don’t is my concern that if I am driving and I have an attack like a muscle spasm... my concern is the people crossing the street or the car next to me. What if I cause an accident? This is why I don’t drive. If I have enough sense to know that I have a condition or keep me from functioning 100 percent... somebody that is three times my age should have enough sense to know that they should-n’t be driving... I just think what happened was really wrong. I finally cried about it yesterday which was Friday...” ■ “I feel really bad that all of these people were killed and injured. It was a horrific accident. It should’ve never happened. The city of Santa Monica should bear a good amount of responsibility for this accident because it is sponsored by the city of Santa Monica. They should have had barriers like they do on the Promenade. Other markets have barriers placed so this very thing doesn’t happen... I am very sure they are liable for this accident. Hindsight is foresight... The city of Santa Monica should’ve seen that this was going to happen. They need to put up some type of permanent barrier so this never happens again.” ■ “We cannot hold Mr. Weller accountable for this tragedy. The state of California, the city of Santa Monica and the immediate family should be held accountable. Every person that received that video from 10 years ago should be ashamed of themselves.” ■ “Thank you for allowing us to say something about Wednesday’s accident. I believe seniors over 75 or 80 should have a medical report from their doctor to see if they should be driving.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 21, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)