L. A. to Pay Crash Victim’s Kin $250,000

A Los Angeles City Council committee approved a settlement on Tuesday that, if approved by the full council, would award $250,000 to the wife and two children of a man killed in a traffic accident along a dangerous curve in Chatsworth.

The suit brought by Janet Quinn, 31, and her children Roxie, 7, and Erin, 10, alleged that the stretch of Valley Circle Boulevard where Timothy Quinn died in 1983 was poorly designed and poorly marked with signs.

The tentative settlement was reached on Aug. 19 in Van Nuys Superior Court when the Quinn family dropped its demand for $400,000, David Berglund, the family’s attorney, said on Tuesday.

In his recommendation to the council, Deputy City Atty. Jeffrey A. Nelson said local residents and companies had for years complained to the city Department of Transportation about accidents along the curve just south of Box Canyon Road.

Accidents Documented

Berglund said that six days before the fatal accident, a city transportation engineer prepared a report documenting several accidents where cars had run into or through guardrails along the curve, where the speed limit is 20 m.p.h.

The council must still approve the settlement, but Alisa Katz, an aide to Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, the committee’s chairman, said the full council routinely approves most committee recommendations.

Katz said that Department of Transportation officials told the three-member committee that new signs warning that a dangerous curve was ahead had been installed to warn motorists.

Timothy Quinn, 29, died on Aug. 25, 1983, when a Mustang GT driven by Curtis Harville ran off Valley Circle Boulevard and fell 50 feet into a ravine south of Box Canyon Road. Quinn had been riding in the back seat.

Berglund said Harville was driving under the influence of alcohol and was partly responsible for the accident. Even so, Berglund said, the city agreed to the settlement because the road’s defects were so blatant.

Berglund said that Harville was convicted of manslaughter in April 1984 and that court testimony showed his blood-alcohol content at the time of the accident was 0.15, above California’s legal intoxication limit of 0.10.

Timothy Quinn was a warehouse manager and the sole means of support for his family, Berglund said. Janet Quinn is unemployed, he said.