Board to Discuss U.S. Tourists’ Safety

San Diego County supervisors had already been weighing the issue since summer, when an injured San Diego-area man died after he was denied immediate transportation home from Mexico. But today the board plans to consider specific ways to help Americans who are seriously hurt in Mexico.

One proposal is that the county could post bonds for injured Americans in Mexican custody while Mexican police investigate an incident. The idea is a dramatic step up from developing public-education campaigns--one of which the board approved after the San Diego-area man died--and comes in response to an early November crash involving two Orange County men.

Keith Takabayashi, 30, of Newport Beach died after apparently falling asleep at the wheel of his Jeep on Nov. 6 while driving near Rosarito Beach. His two passengers, both hurt, were unable to immediately return to the United States for medical care because Mexican authorities required them to post bonds of $11,000 each while they investigated who was driving the car and whether alcohol was a factor.

According to the Baja California medical examiner’s office, Takabayashi’s blood-alcohol level was .05 when he died, well below the .08 limit in the United States.

Newport Beach real estate broker Barry Walshe, 31, was released from custody on Nov. 8. Kevin Lewand Jr., 30, a marine biologist from San Francisco, was transferred to a San Diego trauma center after his family posted the bond. He was released from that hospital on Monday.

It was the second such incident in recent months. A San Diego-area man, Donald Kraft, was denied permission, even though he was seriously hurt, to leave Mexico for 18 hours after an auto accident in Baja California on Aug. 24. He died two weeks later.

“It’s clear there isn’t a good system in place and lives are at stake,” said Ron Roberts, a member of the San Diego County board of supervisors. “I thought it was important to see if we can do something that puts people over politics, to find a way we can get critically injured people into our very good trauma system . . . and result perhaps in some lives being saved.”

Among the proposals made by Roberts and fellow Supervisor Greg Cox to be considered by the board:

* A 24-hour hotline for people--or their families--who are injured in Mexico so they can connect with trauma centers in the United States, legal help and bail-bond companies.

* A Trauma System Outreach Committee to help ensure good medical attention for injured Americans. The committee would be designed to act as a liaison between the San Diego officials and the health care system in Mexico.

* Urging local congressional leaders to negotiate a long-term solution with the Mexican government that ensures the safety of Americans who suffer serious injuries in Mexico.

Glenn Takabayashi, the father of the man who died in the most recent crash, supported the proposals--though he does not blame Mexico for what happened.

“It needs to be done. I hope they will do it,” he said. “But I do understand the case the Mexican government makes: They need some assurances.”

Members of the board said the proposals were not designed to get around Mexican law but rather are ideas simply to get fast medical care to Americans who need it. “If an American who has been critically injured is accused of breaking Mexican law, then they must ultimately be accountable under Mexican law,” Cox and Roberts wrote in their proposal.