VENTURA : State Owes Widow $500,000 in Fatality

The state of California has illegally withheld payment of nearly half a million dollars to the widow and children of a Ventura man killed two years ago when a big-rig truck collided with his vehicle on the Simi Valley Freeway, a Ventura County judge ruled Friday.

Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Lane ordered the state to make the payment to Mary Waits and her two adult children, who were awarded $1.1 million last year from the state, the trucker and his employer.

The state was ordered to pay a total of $558,000 in damages. It has paid $105,000 for loss of companionship but has refused to pay the family about $453,000 for loss of wages, according to Lane’s decision.

The state argued that it should not have been assessed the entire $453,000 bill for loss of wages, but Lane ordered the state to pay the money, with 7% interest retroactive to October.

Weldon Waits, 42, a self-employed electrician who earned $100,000 a year, was killed July 11, 1992, when his pickup truck was struck shortly after 8 a.m. by an 18-wheeler driven by Gerald Wilks.

The accident occurred on the rain-slick road near Calleguas Creek, just east of Center School Road. Wilks, who was driving west at 50 m.p.h., lost control of his vehicle when he tried to stop to avoid hitting a car in front of him, court records said.

Mary Waits and her children sued Wilks and Ed Miller Trucking for negligence. The state was named as a defendant on the grounds that the highway shoulder was so steep and narrow there was no room for Waits to swerve to avoid the collision.

Wilks and the trucking company have paid the family $592,000 of the $595,000 in damages for loss of companionship.