Jury Awards $1.769 Million to Daughter of Man Killed In Collision with a Fire Truck
A Kansas City, Kansas jury awarded $1.7 million to the daughter of a man killed in a collision with a Kansas City fire truck in a case that exposed the cover-up of numerous procedure violations by the fire department in the case of Sabrina Bacerra, a minor, Natural Dependent Daughter and Legal Heir of Aaron M. Bacerra, et al v. Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas, Cause No. 06CV1588.
Kansas City, KS (PRWEB) April 1, 2008 -- The Lakin Law Firm, P.C. announced today that a Kansas City, Kansas jury awarded $1.7 million to the daughter of a man killed in a collision with a Kansas City fire truck in a case that exposed the cover-up of numerous procedure violations by the fire department in the case of Sabrina Bacerra, a minor, Natural Dependent Daughter and Legal Heir of Aaron M. Bacerra, et al v. Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas, Cause No. 06CV1588. The jury found that the driver of the fire truck acted with reckless disregard for safety after hearing both eyewitness and expert testimony refuting false testimony given by fire department witnesses.
According to the evidence presented to the jury, Aaron Becerra, a mechanic with the Kansas City, Kansas police department, was killed when his vehicle was hit by a fire truck driven by an on-duty firefighter who had used drugs and alcohol at a party prior to his shift. The truck entered an intersection at high speed against a red light in the oncoming lane of traffic in clear violation of nationally accepted standards for emergency vehicle operation. Becerra lived for seven days, suffering from massive internal injuries and bleeding on the brain, leaving behind a five-year-old daughter, Sabrina Becerra.
"The jury can never make up to Sabrina Becerra for the loss of her father, but they have given some measure of justice to her family. The jury also sent a stinging rebuke to the Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department for its attempt to cover up their guilt in this incident," said trial counsel Dan Cohen of The Lakin Law Firm, P.C.
According to witness testimony, immediately after the collision, a highway patrol officer was going to test the driver for drugs and alcohol, but was told that the fire department would perform the test, as it was obligated to do under its own policies. Instead, the superior officer on scene ordered all of the firefighters to immediately go off duty, and shortly thereafter, the entire crew met at the captain's house. At this meeting, it was strongly suggested that the driver "lay low" for several days at his girlfriend's house in another county. Testimony showed that the driver remained unreachable for 24 hours, at which time he announced, "It's been 24 hours, it's not going to happen." Evidence was later presented to the jury of the driver's heavy partying the night before the collision, which included large amounts of beer, hard liquor, marijuana and ecstasy (a hallucinogenic with amphetamine-like properties). The party went on to four a.m. and the firefighter showed up for his shift just a few hours later, strung out and sleep-deprived.
Court testimony also exposed self-serving testimony from fire department officers about the accident itself. Firefighters, including the crew's captain, testified that they had entered the intersection on a green light rather than against a red light, and that they had come to a near-complete stop before entering the intersection. Eyewitnesses refuted the fire department's claim that their light was green, and testimony by an accident reconstruction expert calculated that the speed of the fire truck could not have been any slower than 19 miles per hour on entering the intersection, and was likely 23-24 miles per hour at impact, thus rebutting the defendants' claim that they came to a near-stop at the intersection.
"All across our nation, we honor emergency responders for their heroic deeds in our communities. But the actions of these firefighters were shameful. They violated national emergency vehicle driving standards and then lied about it in court, and they covered up for a fellow crew member who never should have been behind the wheel of a fire rig. Worst of all, they tried to put the blame on an innocent man whose fiver-year-old daughter Sabrina was left without a father. On behalf of the Becerra family, we thank the jury for seeing that justice was done in this case," Cohen said.
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