The mother and son of a pickup truck driver who was fatally injured in a crash in Beverly Hills in 2016 on the same steep street where two LAPD officers were killed in previous crashes settled their lawsuit against the city for a collective total of $640,000.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in August 2016 on behalf of Maria Caridade Rodrigues, the mother of 25-year-old Gerbis Gomes, and his son, who’s almost 3 years old, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Rodrigues will receive $400,000 under the settlement and her grandson $240,000.
The crash occurred about 8:20 a.m. Jan. 15, 2016, in the 800 block of Loma Vista Drive. Gomes, who was driving south toward Doheny Road when he struck a parked car, was trapped in the wreckage for about 30 minutes and died at a hospital about two hours after the crash, according to Beverly Hills police.
On March 7, 2014, a dump truck collided with a Los Angeles police car on Loma Vista Drive, killing Officer Nicholas Lee and injuring his partner.
On May 9, 2014, off-duty LAPD Detective Ernest Allen was killed when a concrete mixer collided with his vehicle on the same street.
“Although deaths were caused due to identical reasons as (Gomes’) death, the city of Beverly Hills failed to properly reevaluate the roadway,” the suit alleged. “These deaths were not a coincidence.”
The street could have been redesigned so that it was less steep, according to the suit, which said speed bumps and signs warning of the perils of the street’s incline also should have been put in place.
Gomes “had an extraordinary unique relationship with his mother,” according to the plaintiffs’ court papers.
“(Gomes) lived with his mother from the day that he was born until the day that he died,” the plaintiffs’ court papers stated.
Gomes paid his mother $900 in financial support monthly before his death, the plaintiffs’ court papers stated.