Jury Orders DMV to Pay $4 Million to 3 Hit by Blind Driver

The state Department of Motor Vehicles should pay $4.1 million to three pedestrians who were hit in a crosswalk by a legally blind motorist, an Orange County Superior Court jury decided Friday.

The same jury had previously found the DMV negligent in giving a license to George Lizarralde, a Brea resident who was turned down for a driver’s license three times, then received one on the fourth try even though he flunked the vision test.

Deborah Ann Mohr, a 32-year-old Whittier woman who suffered brain damage and other permanent injuries in the accident, said she was happy with the jury’s decision.

“I would give up every penny to be able to walk normal again, to have my memory back again, and to have things back to normal,” said Mohr, who uses a cane to get around. “I hope this makes the DMV more responsible about giving out licenses.”

Bill Madison, a DMV spokesman in Sacramento, said the agency plans to appeal the decision. “We don’t think that we are responsible for the accident,” said Madison. “We don’t just issue licenses to people without testing them appropriately.”

Madison declined to elaborate, but state Deputy Atty. Gen. Barbara Annette Noble, who represented the DMV during trial, argued that the agency was immune from liability and should not be held responsible for the accident. She said the accident occurred because Lizarralde took his eyes off the road to pick up a cassette player, not because of his poor vision.