A man who lost his legs in 2017 when he was hit by a truck driven by a city of Los Angeles employee while standing outside his disabled Mercedes-Benz is suing Daimler AG, its U.S. subsidiary and the city.
Gabriel Abikzer and his wife, Maria, brought the lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging negligence, strict product liability and loss of consortium. The complaint seeks unspecified damages.
Representative for the City Attorney’s Office and Daimler could not be immediately reached.
Gabriel Abikzer says his 2015 Mercedes-Benz S550 was equipped with ECO Start/Stop technology, which the German car manufacturer touts as allowing drivers to save fuel and reduce emissions without altering anything about one’s driving.
According to the lawsuit, the ECO system — which is supposed to turn off a car’s engine when it is stationary so that fuel can be saved, then restart the car when the accelerator is pressed — was defective because some cars stalled without warning and would not restart like they were supposed to.
Abikzer was driving his young son to school last Oct. 23 when the car’s engine suddenly turned off while he was on Mason Avenue, south of Corbin Avenue, and would not restart, the suit alleges.
Abikzer got out of his car and was trying to take some things out of his trunk when he was hit by a truck driven by Jeffery Eric Joel, a city building inspector whose job was to drive to and from construction sites, the suit states.
Both of Abikzer’s legs had to be amputated, the suit states. The complaint alleges that had the ECO system not been defective, Abikzer would not have been standing outside his car and hit by Joel, who allegedly was driving negligently.
Mercedes-Benz blamed the ECO problem on “glitches in the software program,” according to the lawsuit.