Flimsy Barriers Cited in Crash

The absence of rigid protective barriers contributed to the casualties when an elderly driver inadvertently propelled his Buick LeSabre through the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market in July 2003, killing 10 and injuring dozens, federal transportation safety officials said Tuesday.

But the calamity was probably caused by driver George Russell Weller, 87, who mistook his 1992 car’s gas pedal for the brake and thus accelerated as he plowed down 2 1/2 blocks of Arizona Avenue, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a hearing in Washington.

The board also said the existence of a black box, like those used in airplanes, in Weller’s Buick could have given investigators a much clearer picture of the accident and for the first time urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require such event data recorders in all new cars.

NTSB investigators found that Santa Monica’s 18-year-old plan for keeping traffic off that portion of Arizona, between 4th Street and Ocean Avenue, did not comply with national, state or city guidelines. Warnings are posted too close to the market -- after drivers have already turned onto Arizona Avenue or 2nd Street -- and the signs are too small, the NTSB found. In addition, alleys along the market that should be blocked off are left open.

“Contributing to the severity of the accident was the lack of a barrier system to protect pedestrians ... from errant vehicles,” the board found.

Guidelines followed by the Federal Highway Administration, the state and Santa Monica all call for highly visible barriers with three stacked bars, the agency said. Investigators who visited the market after the crash found low-to-the-ground barricades that in some cases had just one bar or were even less imposing.

Santa Monica City Atty. Marsha Jones Moutrie said in a written statement that the federal and local standards for road closures applied only to those under construction or repair and not for events such as the farmers market.

The NTSB, however, cited language in the federal “Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices” that road closure guidelines apply in any case where normal traffic flow is stopped, whether it is for “a work zone, incident or other event.”

However, the NTSB acknowledged that the guidelines are obscure and hard to find. It urged the Federal Highway Administration to revise the manual to make the guidelines more prominent to traffic planners.

Joe Osterman, the NTSB’s director of highway safety, acknowledged that, even if Santa Monica had used barricades with three stacked bars, they would not have been strong enough to stop Weller’s car. Echoing earlier findings by the California Highway Patrol, the NTSB found that Weller apparently kept pumping the gas pedal, thinking he was pressing the brake, as his car raced forward.

NTSB Chairwoman Ellen Engleman Conners said that although Weller’s age might have seemed a simple explanation for the accident, drivers far younger can, in a panic, confuse the brake and gas pedals and keep pumping the gas.

Stopping Weller’s car sooner, and thus reducing casualties, would have would required a rigid barrier system, like the metal stanchions that Santa Monica uses at the pedestrians-only Third Street Promenade, the NTSB said. But investigators said they found that city officials had rejected such barriers for the Wednesday and Saturday markets because Arizona Avenue was not permanently closed, as is the promenade.

“Our principal practical concern is maintaining free emergency [access],” Moutrie said.

During the past five years, she said, the Santa Monica Fire Department has responded to 15 medical calls from within the market.

“I think that the NTSB has used the tragedy of the Farmers’ Market as a springboard to suggest new [closure] requirements and a new standard which, at the moment, as far as I know, is not used for any street market anywhere in the country,” Moutrie said in an interview.

At the hearing, the board criticized the city’s current practice of using farmers’ vans and trucks to block the market’s entrances. Officials said the vehicles’ gasoline tanks could explode if struck by a fast-moving car.

She disputed the board’s tentative conclusion that the city’s traffic plan wasn’t consistent with existing guidelines.

“I think that tentative finding is misleading at best and possibly wrong,” Moutrie said.

The city has not revised its traffic plan because it has worked. “There’s never been an accident like that one,” she said.

In her statement, Moutrie said the city agreed “with the NTSB conclusion that the driver caused this tragic event.” But she added that the NTSB report included “significant inconsistencies and speculation.”

The board can recommend, but not require, changes, and the city planned to closely study the report, which it has not yet seen. The city could also appeal the matter and seek changes to the NTSB report.

“We want to do a careful evaluation,” Moutrie said. “This is a serious matter.”

Weller faces 10 felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Santa Monica, meanwhile, faces about 50 lawsuits that have been filed by some of the 63 injured victims and survivors of those killed in the tragedy. Those plaintiffs have also sued Weller, but his personal resources and insurance coverage are expected to be quickly tapped out.

An attorney representing injured shoppers and survivors of the dead said the federal findings and recommendations should bolster their cases.

Geoffrey Wells, who represents 12 families suing Weller and Santa Monica, said the NTSB’s findings clearly counter the city’s insistence that it took all necessary precautions.

“They have found that the city didn’t do that, as have we,” he said.

Separately, criminal defense attorneys for Weller on Monday sought and won a halt to all civil court proceedings from a California court of appeal. Those cases are on hold until further notice from the appeals judge.

Osterman said Santa Monica was not the only city that could improve the way it closes its roads for farmers markets, which have soared in popularity. He added that the NTSB is talking with many cities about how they manage temporary road closures.

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Groves reported from Santa Monica and Yang from Washington.