Conn. City Must Pay $3.4M in Fire Truck Deaths

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- A Superior Court judge Thursday ordered the city to pay more than $3.4 million to the family of a mother and daughter killed four years ago when their car was broad-sided by a firetruck at a downtown intersection.

In an 18-page decision, Judge Theodore Tyma ruled that Firefighter David Otero was negligent when he drove through a red traffic light at Congress Street and Housatonic Avenue on July 31, 2007, crashing into the car occupied by Essie Williams, 76, and her 58-year-old daughter, Gwendolyn Little.

Little, of Willow Street, died at the scene while her mother, of Platt Street, died eight months later from her injuries.

"The plaintiffs have proven by a fair preponderance of the evidence that Otero was negligent in failing to keep a proper lookout as he drove Ladder 5 into and across the intersection of Congress Street and Housatonic Avenue," the judge wrote. "There is no plausible reason, notwithstanding Otero's explanatory testimony, why he stopped looking to his left and right as he proceeded through the busy and heavily traveled intersection while continually accelerating his approximately 37 ton truck."

The judge rendered a total award for Little's death against the city of $1,268,236.80 and $2,160,662.70 on behalf of her mother. The lawyer for Little and Williams did not return calls for comment.

Associate City Attorney Betsy Edwards said both sides previously agreed to a limit on any possible verdict so the city will be liable for less than half the amount awarded and will have three years to pay it off without interest.

"We took this case to trial because we have the utmost faith in the decisions that our firefighters make everyday while protecting the city," Edwards said. "While we are obviously disappointed with and disagree with the outcome, this verdict does not change our confidence in that."

According to testimony at trial, the firetruck had just left the Congress Street firehouse and was headed to a fire on Catherine Street when Otero accelerated through the red light at the intersection and t-boned the 1977 Dodge sedan driven by Little with her mother in the front passenger seat, pushing it 30 feet across the intersection.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service