Traffic Light OKd at Accident Site
The Simi Valley City Council has agreed to install a traffic light at an intersection where a city police cruiser slammed into a nurse’s compact car in 1994 and sent her into an eight-month coma.
The council voted 5 to 0 late Monday to solicit bids for a traffic signal at the driveway of the Metrolink station on Los Angeles Avenue, where the April 13, 1994, accident badly injured Margaret Sphar, 46.
Sphar emerged from the coma last year but remains severely disabled, said her lawyer, Geoff Wells.
She was driving out of the parking lot at the Metrolink station in eastern Simi Valley when a police car driven by Simi Valley Officer Rick Rinehart smashed into her Honda. The Honda’s door locks popped, and Sphar was thrown onto the street. Sphar sued the city for negligence and won a $2-million settlement in February, said City Atty. John Torrance.
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