Agency Held Liable for Unsafe Route to Bus Stop

Transit agencies in California can be held legally responsible when patrons are injured on their way to a bus stop that is hazardous to reach, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The 5-2 ruling was a defeat for more than 200 transit agencies in California that had joined the case on behalf of the defendant, the Central Contra Costa Transit Authority. A lawyer for the transit agencies predicted that the ruling will increase lawsuits and hurt public transportation in California.

“It is very significant for all transit agencies in the state because it says they have to determine that the means to get to bus stops are safe,” said David W. Baer, who represented the agencies. A dissenting judge said the majority decision is “like watching a traffic accident in slow motion.”

But an attorney for a woman who was injured on her way to a bus stop said the decision will force transit agencies to take notice when patrons complain of unsafe conditions.

“If it is brought to their attention that a bus stop is dangerous, they are going to have to do something about it instead of saying that is not our problem,” said Walter Walker III, who represented the plaintiff.

The case involved a crosswalk in Contra Costa County across the bay from San Francisco. Other than bus riders, few pedestrians used the crosswalk. Traffic on the street was heavy during the morning commute, and the speed limit was often disregarded, the court said.

The court noted that someone had been hurt in the crosswalk previously. In February 1986, a schoolgirl was struck by a car while in the crosswalk on her way to the bus stop. The girl’s family sued in July 1987, and the county installed traffic signal lights with pushbuttons at a nearby intersection. But the transit agency left its stop at the unlighted, unsafe crosswalk.

In November 1993, Darlene Bonanno, who was developmentally disabled, tried to cross the street to get to the bus stop on her way to her job as a motel housekeeper. Two motorists eventually stopped for her, but a third driver rear-ended one of the cars, forcing it into Bonanno, who as a result is partially paralyzed.

Bonanno sued, and a jury found the transit agency was partly responsible for the accident. The transit agency was ordered to pay Bonanno $1.6 million in compensation, and the agency appealed.

Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, writing for the court, said a bus stop may be deemed dangerous because bus patrons must cross a dangerous crosswalk to reach it.

“We reject CCCTA’s contention that it cannot be held liable for an injury occurring on property it neither owned nor controlled,” Werdegar wrote. The agency “owned and controlled its own bus stop, and a condition of that property, its physical situation, caused users of the bus stop to be at risk from the immediately adjacent property.”

Justices Janice Rogers Brown and Marvin Baxter dissented in Bonanno v. Central Contra Costa Transit Authority, S099339.

“Reading the majority opinion is painful, like watching a traffic accident in slow motion, because the majority’s misguided effort to compensate the victim of this accident will, quite foreseeably, victimize everyone else who is dependent on public transit,” Brown wrote.

“Where you stand can depend on where you sit, and, let us be frank, Supreme Court justices don’t sit on buses very often,” she said.

“Therefore, the majority would do well to consider the plight of those dependent on ... the transit agency serving northwestern Contra Costa County.”

Baxter complained that the court majority had significantly expanded liability for dangerous conditions on others’ property. He contended the decision could increase liability for private property owners as well as government.