City May Pay Big in Latest La Tuna Death

For nearly two decades, the infamous history of La Tuna Canyon Road has been etched in lawsuits and accident reports. Soon, the Los Angeles City Council will consider paying $1.2 million to the survivors of the road’s latest victim.

It was during the downpour of March 24, 1994, that a trash truck maneuvering a rain-slicked curve on that road in Sun Valley suddenly lost traction in a pool of water and began to hydroplane out of control.

The truck slid into oncoming traffic, crashing head-on into a car driven by Rafeek Teraberanyans, a 34-year-old auto mechanic and father of two.

Teraberanyans’ wife, Armineh, who was following in another car, witnessed the crash. She ran to her husband’s side and cradled him in her arms just in time to watch him die of massive head injuries.

Armineh Teraberanyans sued Browning-Ferris Industries, the landfill operator that owned the trash truck, and the city of Los Angeles, claiming that the accident was caused by the speed of the truck and the poor drainage that caused rain to pool on the city-designed roadway.

The council will consider the $1.2-million settlement Wednesday. It wouldn’t be the first time the city has had to settle a suit resulting from an accident on that menacing stretch of road.

In two cases dating to 1979, the city has already paid $450,000 to settle claims in which motorists died in collisions on the rain-slicked road near Elben Avenue, east of the Foothill Freeway.

In each case, the families of the deceased motorists have argued in lawsuits that the city was partially to blame for failing to install proper drainage to keep rain from pooling on the roadway.

In the past 20 years, four other deaths and 30 accidents--at least 17 of which were head-on collisions--have occurred on that same stretch of La Tuna Canyon Road during rainstorms, according to city reports about the lawsuits.

Despite the history of accidents, there is still “substandard drainage throughout the length of La Tuna Canyon Road,” according to a Jan. 31 report by the city attorney’s office. The report, which recommends that the council pay the $1.2-million settlement, said city engineers found that the drainage system does not even meet the original 1957 road design standards.

Assistant City Atty. Philip Sugar, who is in charge of the case for the city, said his research found that the city has made no improvements recently on the stretch where Teraberanyans died.

While he acknowledges that the roadway has a history of problems that have not been addressed, he attributes the large number of accidents to excessive speed.

“The problem is you have people who drive awfully fast on La Tuna Canyon,” he said.

Lawsuits such as the Teraberanyans case prompted City Councilman Mike Feuer to recommend last week that whenever the council pays out a large settlement, city administrators propose improvements to city streets and facilities to avoid similar suits in the future.

Feuer, a freshman councilman who sits on the Budget and Finance Committee, said he has seen many suits that the city could have avoided by simply making street improvements, installing missing stop signs or other changes.

“In my short tenure I have seen dozens of such cases,” he said.

Feuer’s proposal will be considered by the council next month.

In the Teraberanyans case, city engineers acknowledge that two or three spillways that are designed to drain water from the road have been paved over or washed away by mudslides over the years and never replaced.

George Groves, an assistant district engineer, acknowledged that replacing the missing spillways would probably protect the city from future lawsuits. But he added that installing new spillways would not totally eliminate the problem.

“There will always be rain on the street,” he said. “That is how they are designed.”

Based on a suggestion from the city attorney’s office, the Department of Engineering has recently launched a study on ways to minimize the water-pooling problems, he said. It was unclear when any repairs might be made.

The first lawsuit was prompted by a head-on collision in 1979.

It was a rainy afternoon in late January when Harry Olsen, 58, a physicist and consultant to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, was driving his pickup truck west on La Tuna Canyon Road, just east of Elben Avenue.

He was driving within the posted 45-mph speed limit when his car hit a flooded section and hydroplaned into oncoming traffic, according to police who investigated the accident. Olsen’s truck hit an oncoming vehicle, and he died before he could be rushed to a hospital.

Olsen’s wife, Frances, his three daughters and one son sued the city, claiming the road’s drainage system was inadequate and played a role in the accident.

Olsen’s family hired a private engineering firm, which concluded that the roadway at the site of the accident was poorly designed to handle the rain and runoff from nearby hillsides.

In a 1981 report to the council, Deputy City Atty. Thomas Gutierrez urged the council to pay the family $400,000 to settle the case, in part, he said, because if the suit was tried in court, a jury could conclude that “the city was aware of problems with the roadway as early as 1970.”

Gutierrez was referring to a 1970 survey by the then-Department of Traffic that recommended new street lighting, slicing grooves into the pavement and widening the street to reduce the high accident rate in the area.

But as of November 1981, Gutierrez said in his report, the city had not installed the grooving or added any drainage improvements at the site of the accident. The council agreed with his recommendation and paid the $400,000.

A similar suit was filed in 1987. Paul Constantine and his wife, Dorcas, were driving east on La Tuna Canyon Road on a rainy afternoon in November of that year. Eighteen-year-old Tyler Bush, who was working for a landscaping company, was heading west in a company pickup when it began to hydroplane on a pool of water.

The truck rammed head-on into the 1966 Volkswagen Beetle driven by the Constantines, killing them instantly.

The couple’s three daughters sued the city of Los Angeles and the landscaping company, alleging that the speed of the truck and poor drainage on the roadway contributed to the accident.

The daughters submitted photos of storm drains blocked by debris, arguing that it channeled more water onto the streets. They also alleged that the banking and design of the road forced water to drain across the roadway rather than channeling it on either side of the street.

The landscaping firm settled by paying the family $505,000. During a settlement conference, a Superior Court judge recommended that the city pay the family $50,000 to settle its portion of the case. The city approved the settlement.

In the Teraberanyans case, lawyers for the family point to the history of accidents on that stretch of road and the two prior lawsuits as evidence that the city has failed to make the necessary repairs.

The suit charges that “the public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous conditions . . . with sufficient time prior to the injury to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous conditions.”

On that rainy day, Armineh Teraberanyans had just taken her husband to pick up his car from a repair shop and was following him to their home in La Crescenta when the collision occurred.

An accident analysis expert hired by the city estimated that the Browning-Ferris trash truck was traveling in the opposite direction at between 40 and 50 mph in an area with a posted speed limit of 45 mph. The truck was headed to a disposal plant in Sun Valley.

Although the truck may not have been exceeding the posted speed limit, Geoff Wells, attorney for the family, said the lawsuit alleges that the truck was going too fast for the rainy conditions. The road also has a 5% grade and a curve near Elben Avenue.

Browning-Ferris settled the suit by paying Teraberanyans’ family $4.5 million. But in cooperation with the family, Browning-Ferris filed a cross-complaint against the city, alleging that the roadway problems contributed to the accident.

During settlement discussions, a Superior Court judge recommended that the city pay $1.2 million for its share of the damages already paid out by Browning-Ferris.

The city attorney’s report to the council agrees with the recommendation, citing the history of accidents on the road, the two prior wrongful-death suits and engineering studies that show the road lacks an adequate number of spillways to drain away excess water.

“We can’t say that we didn’t know it was an accident site,” Assistant City Atty. Sugar said.

In a 1981 report to the council, Deputy City Atty. Thomas Gutierrez urged the council to pay the family $400,000 to settle the case, in part, he said, because if the suit was tried in court, a jury could conclude that ‘the city was aware of problems with the roadway as early as 1970.’