> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Weller will have his say - URL: https://www.smdp.com/weller-will-have-his-say/ - Published: 2007-10-17T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T01:08:45.000Z - Author: Kevin Herrera - Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Elderly driver gets to explain his story* George Russell Weller will finally break his silence. The elderly man responsible for killing 10 people and injuring scores more when he drove his car through a crowded Farmers’ Market more than four years ago will tell his side of the story when he gives a deposition in a civil suit involving him and City Hall. Attorneys for the victims of the crash and Weller confirmed Tuesday that the 90-year-old Santa Monican, who has so far refused to speak on the record, has been ordered to talk about what happened July 16, 2003, when he drove his 1992 Buick LeSabre through temporary plastic and wood barricades, and into shoppers at the open-air market at speeds up to 60 miles per hour. The death toll from the 20-second drive was the largest number of pedestrian fatalities from a traffic incident in California history, according to the California Highway Patrol. Weller was found guilty in October of last year of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and sentenced to five years probation. During the four-week trial, Weller appeared in court just once and did not testify on his own behalf. Weller has since refused to give a deposition in the civil case out of fear that his statements may have been used against him in the criminal trial, and now, during his appeal. Geoff Wells, an attorney representing victims in the civil case, wants Weller to tell him as much as he can remember about the incident in an effort to bolster his claim that City Hall and the Bayside District Corp. failed in protecting the public. With Weller’s health deteriorating, it remains to be seen how much he still remembers. The deposition will take place in Weller’s home WilMont home and be limited to two hours, according to Wells. A second two-hour deposition could also take place if attorneys feel they need more information. 50A,“We want to know what happened and why it was that he went into the market,” said Wells, who has clients who have been struggling financially since the crash due to medical bills. Others have since died. “We believe he mistook the brake for the gas and kept mistaking the brake for the gas,” Wells said. “That is important for us because one of the defenses used by the city is that (they) couldn’t have protected against somebody driving through the market at speeds that he drove through. That’s not true. “People will make mistakes when they drive, and if you had taken care of business at the beginning of that market, we wouldn’t be here.” City Hall back on the hook City Hall was recently brought back into the case after a panel of state appellate court judges threw out an earlier ruling granting City Hall design immunity. At the heart of the decision was a piece of paper that allegedly served as the market’s traffic management plan. A Santa Monica judge ruled that since a traffic management plan was in place and had been approved by a certified traffic engineer, City Hall could not be held liable under design immunity. The rationale for design immunity is to prevent a jury from second-guessing the decision of a public entity that has gone through the required steps. The appellate court said the traffic management plan, essentially a sheet of paper with a diagram of the market and writing stating where streets would be closed, did not include barricades that had been approved by the traffic engineer. The engineer also testified that he could not recall if the handwritten notations on the paper were on a plan shown to him by the market manager. “Accordingly, the details surrounding (the traffic management plan) are fraught with sufficient uncertainty to raise a reasonable inference that it might not be the plan approved …,” the appellate court ruled. Attorneys for City Hall argued that the market was not in a dangerous condition on the day of the crash and that testimony from the traffic engineer clearly shows that the piece of paper in question was the approved traffic management plan. “The ruling was made purely on procedural grounds and doesn’t say anything about the merits of the plaintiffs’ lawsuit,” said Chief Deputy City Attorney Jeanette Schachtner, who is in charge of civil liability. “This is a factual dispute about the approval of the plan that needs to be resolved in future court proceedings. The city will show that this is the plan that was approved, and once that issue is resolved, I believe the city is entitled to the design immunity.” Schachtner anticipates that the issue of design immunity will be resolved before the case goes to trial, which is set for February 2008. “This (ruling) does bring the city back into the lawsuit, but only temporarily,” she said. As for Weller testifying, Schachtner said it is important for the community to hear from Weller about what happened that fateful day. “He was the cause of this accident,” she said. Attorneys for Weller said in his criminal trial that the former food broker suffered from “pedal error,” and accidentally mistook the gas for the brake. The jury in his criminal trial felt Weller may have made a mistake initially, but had plenty of opportunities to correct that mistake, which he chose not to take. “We want to know what happened and why it was that he went into the market.” Geoff Wells, attorney for victims of the Farmers’ Market crash *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 17, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)