Crash Victim to Receive $19 Million

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved the largest personal injury settlement it has ever paid--$19 million to the family of a woman permanently disabled after a city maintenance truck slammed into several cars on the Hollywood Freeway.

Carol Adkins, a 44-year-old nursing instructor, remains in a “post comative” condition, fed intravenously and able to communicate only by blinking.

Doctors believe she has some limited awareness. Her medical bills are $30,000 a month.

“The victim of this accident had a bright future, but suffered a horrible accident that has tragic consequences for the rest of her life,” said Councilman Mike Feuer. “There is no question that the city, through one of our employees, was the cause of the accident.”

For Adkins’ daughters, mother and brother, who are helping to care for her in their native Jacksonville, Fla., news of the council action was a relief--assurance that Adkins’ medical bills will be covered for the rest of her life.

“We are glad it is over because now we can do some things medically that we have wanted to do,” said Richard Birt, Adkins’ brother.

Adkins’ $1-million health insurance policy was exhausted very quickly, and the family has been unable to afford extensive physical therapy and new treatments for brain injury, Birt said.

Before the accident, Adkins taught nursing at the University of North Florida and was about to give her oral dissertation for a PhD. She had received a teaching offer from Columbia University in New York, but had come to California to visit her fiance, John Norris of Newbury Park, at the time of the accident.

City employee Louis C. Gysin was driving a four-ton crane-truck southbound on the Hollywood Freeway near Universal Center Drive on March 5, 1998, when investigators believe he fell asleep and lost control of his truck.

The truck crossed several lanes and plowed through the center divider, becoming airborne before it slammed into a van, killing the driver, Roger Randall, and then coming to rest on Adkins’ rented car, pinning her inside.

Gysin has limited memory of what happened, but denies falling asleep. The California Highway Patrol investigation found that fatigue and an overloaded truck contributed to the accident.

Birt said he holds no animosity toward Gysin, who has retained his previous city job as a power shovel operator but is no longer allowed to drive trucks.

“We are trying to pursue Carol’s recovery and not be angry,” Birt said.

Woodland Hills attorney Richard Ferko, who represents Adkins’ family, said the accident has deprived Adkins’ daughters, who were 17 and 19 at the time, of the mother they knew.

Adkins’ family has a pending lawsuit against the state, charging that the median divider on the Hollywood Freeway was substandard, allowing the truck to cross into oncoming traffic.

The family will receive $10.7 million immediately, and the rest in payments through July 31, 2002, according to Senior Assistant City Atty. Dan Woodard.

Woodard recommended the settlement to the council, saying a jury award could have been much higher.

As it is, the settlement represents the largest payout by the city in a personal injury case, nearly double the $9.9 million paid last year to a man struck by a police car in a crosswalk.

The city has also settled six of the other lawsuits involving the Hollywood Freeway crash, including a $2-million payment to the family of Randall.

Council members said Tuesday they are concerned about the rising legal costs, citing a report released Monday that the city’s payments in legal settlements and judgments rose 28% in 1999 to $60.5 million.

Feuer, who chairs the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, said the Adkins settlement was the humane thing to do.

“It’s a huge amount of money but it takes into account mostly her medical bills,” Feuer said. “It would be an absolutely awful thing for any of us to endure this kind of a life.”