Indian Wells ordered to pay $5.8M to family of bicyclist killed
The city of Indian Wells was ordered to pay nearly $5.8 million to the family of a Coachella Valley doctor killed while riding his bicycle on Fred Waring Drive three years ago.
The collision happened at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, June 2, 2012.
The victim, 52-year-old neurosurgeon Gerald Weiss of Palm Desert, was struck from behind shortly after turning westbound on Fred Waring Drive from El Dorado where the lane narrows from 15.6 feet to 10.6 feet. The family argued that the lane was too narrow and because of how dark it was, nobody would have had time to swerve and avoid him.
The driver, 24-year-old Christopher Stockman, was allegedly drunk. But the attorney for the family argued the road’s narrow bike lanes and lack of street lighting caused the crash.
On Tuesday, November 17, a jury agreed that the city was partially to blame for Weiss’ death.
“Hopefully someone will step up and do the right thing, prohibit bike riding on Fred Waring and this won’t happen again,” said Joseph Davis, attorney for the Weiss family.
Stockman stopped after striking Weiss and cooperated with the investigation. He testified in court and was remorseful.
Experts in court deemed there wasn’t enough room in the lane for both the car and the bike, so regardless of alcohol intoxication, the crash was bound to have happened.
Weiss left behind a wife and two sons.
The city of Indian Wells released the following statement to News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 on Wednesday afternoon:
The City of Indian Wells has been advised by its risk sharing pool, the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, that a verdict was reached in the case of Haber v. Indian Wells. Despite the City being found only 35% at fault, the City’s share of the $6.8M verdict is approximately $5.8M due to state laws concerning joint and several liability, with the adverse driver being underinsured and the City having to make up the shortfall on the economic damages portion of the verdict of $5.67M. If unchallenged, the verdict will be paid in full by the California JPIA, which maintained control over this litigation and made the decision to proceed to trial. Both the City and the California JPIA do not admit any liability as to the allegations that Fred Waring Drive was the cause of this unfortunate roadway accident that involved a drunk driver.
