Jury Awards $3.75 Million to Pedestrian Injured in 1980 Coast Highway Accident

An Orange County jury Wednesday awarded $3.75 million to a 26-year-old Mission Viejo woman who suffered brain damage as a result of a 1980 traffic accident in a South Laguna crosswalk.

The 12-member Superior Court jury found that the California Department of Transportation was 80% at fault for the July 20 accident on state-owned Coast Highway and thus must pay Cynthia Christine Genrich that percentage of the award, or $3 million. Jurors found that Caltrans knew, through complaints from the community and its own traffic studies, that the crosswalk on West Street was in a dangerous spot. The jury also found that Caltrans had time to correct the problem.

Genrich and Robert Davey of South Laguna, the driver of the car, were each held 10% responsible.

Since the accident, Caltrans moved the crosswalk from the north to the south side of the intersection.

Benefit for Others

“I’m so happy for other people the crosswalk changed, so it cannot happen to anyone else,” Genrich said slowly and with careful enunciation.

The award, she said, “should make life easier. I hope. . . . I would like to buy my favorite $40 perfume . . . it’s from France. . . . I want to send my lawyer flowers at his office.”

Caltrans officials and the agency’s attorney in the case, Irwin Schulman, could not be reached for comment.

Genrich, then a model and student at the Laguna Beach School of Art, was on her way to the beach the afternoon of July 20. She was halfway through the crosswalk when she stepped past a line of cars in the southbound left-turn lane and Davey’s car hit her.

According to Frank Barbaro, her attorney, Davey testified during the 3 1/2-week trial that he was traveling at or below the speed limit but did not see Genrich behind the line of cars, which he believed were stopped merely for the turn. Genrich was hurled 40 to 60 feet by the impact.

Barbaro said Wednesday that Genrich suffered a rupture to the aorta and would have died if lifeguard Doug Shoaf had not kept her breathing until paramedics arrived.

“Dr. Sidney Walker testified that at 26 years of age, she has the brain of an 86-year-old woman due to cellular damage,” Barbaro said. “She has cerebral atrophy, brain stem atrophy and she’s brain damaged.” Because of that, he said, she has trouble walking and uses a wheelchair.

Barbaro said that Caltrans knew that an average of 24 accidents a year occurred in or near that crosswalk, which has no stoplight. “The South Laguna Civic Assn. has been complaining . . . to Caltrans for years,” he said.

Styles Burke, president of the advisory council, said Wednesday that he is pleased and impressed with the jury’s findings.

“Residents have long felt that it was a dangerous situation,” Burke said.

They still believe the crosswalk needs a stoplight, he said. Burke said he has “had phone calls to various organizations--the California Highway Patrol, the Sheriff’s Department, the county and Caltrans. For years, we’ve fought to have a traffic light at that intersection. Still are. When we talked to Caltrans, they indicated to us that one of the reasons was that a signal costs $90,000 and there just wasn’t the funds. Just think: They could’ve saved themselves $3 million if they’d done it.”

Since the accident, Genrich has diligently recited what she calls her “positive affirmations” several times a day: “By July, 1987, I will walk totally independently and perform mental and physical functions easily and calmly.” And: “I am always happy; I will always be happy because I know it is out of my hands.”

“I think it’s a winning attitude to have,” she said. “I can’t really be mad at anyone at all. It’s not in my hands anyway to be mad. So I’m glad.”

Eventually, she said, she would like to resume her artwork and marry Scott Wolfe, her fiance of three years. Wolfe is host of a weekly yoga show on a South Laguna cable station.

“I’ll probably get married soon, but when I’m more independent, because a wedding is a lot of work . . ., “ Genrich said. “It’s a lot of work having your girlfriend be in a wheelchair.”