Kansas City, MO, Firefighter Responsible for Triple Fatal Crash May Get Nearly $1M from City

The Kansas City firefighter responsible for the deaths of three people in a December 2021 traffic crash in Westport that cost taxpayers more than $3 million in damages could receive $915,000 from the city to settle a grievance case filed on his behalf by his union.

According to the agenda for its regular meeting on Thursday, the City Council was set to consider approving the settlement, which would appear to end two years of litigation that began when the Fire Department suspended Dominic Biscari without pay and announced its intention to fire him.

The department announced the disciplinary actions when Biscari pleaded guilty in February 2023 to three counts of involuntary manslaughter. In exchange for his plea, Biscari avoided a jury trial in which he faced the the possibility of conviction on the charges and being sentenced to up to 12 years in prison, as each count carried a maximum sentence of four years.

Instead, he got three years probation and was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service.

The firefighters union Local 42 filed a grievance to block Biscari’s termination soon after that guilty plea. The grievance process led to a hearing before an arbitrator last year and then a lawsuit that the city will most likely drop as part of the settlement.

The agenda item provides few details of the settlement, other than it would resolve the grievance and arbitration cases, as well as “a Workers’ Compensation benefit filed by the employee for injuries resulting from an accident while employed by the City.”

It does not say whether Biscari will be allowed to keep his job at the fire department.

Previously, the city paid out $3.2 million in settlements to the families and loved ones of the deceased and the owner of a building that was damaged.

Were it not for laws that limit the damages that courts can award people who win suits against governmental bodies, the city’s liability could have been much higher. A judge in a civil case against Biscari had awarded $32 million in damages to the victims’ families, who looked to the city for payment as Biscari was unable to pay such a large sum.

Biscari was 21 at the time of the crash. According to charging documents, he was driving Pumper 19 northbound on Broadway Boulevard at full throttle as it approached Westport Road with his flashing lights and sirens on. The truck was going 51 mph, as measured by the fire truck’s vehicle data recorder, at the time of the crash on a street where the speed limit is 35 mph .

Surveillance video showed that the traffic light had been red for 16 seconds when the fire truck entered the intersection, the probable cause statement said. Biscari told police he saw a car ahead of him and slammed on the brakes, but couldn’t stop in time.

A judge in a civil case filed by the victims’ families determined that Biscari lied when he said he tried to stop and when he told police he was only driving 30 mph.

His crew was en route to a house fire at the time of the wreck, but according to the crew captain received notice moments before the crash that their assistance was no longer needed and was put back into service, according to that document.

The 20-ton, Pierce fire truck hit a Honda CR-V driven by Jennifer San Nicholas, who had the green light. At impact, the Honda carrying San Nicholas and her passenger, Michael Elwood, became lodged under the fire truck’s front bumper.

“Pumper 19 then veered off to the left, striking three parked vehicles, crushing a pedestrian, and slamming into and causing the collapse of the building located at 4050 Broadway,” the document said.

The second floor of the building collapsed on that pedestrian, Tami Knight, who had just had dinner at a restaurant with her boyfriend and was about to get into his car when the crash occurred. San Nicolas, Elwood and Knight all died at the scene. San Nicolas, 41, and Elwood, 25, worked at the restaurant Ragazza and Knight was a data analyst with Kansas City Public Schools. All were from Kansas City.

Following the accident, Biscari was assigned to desk duty at fire department headquarters.

Six months after the wreck, the city and the union agreed to let him return to full duty as a firefighter, as no charges had been filed by then, but he was prohibited from driving a fire truck.

He was relieved of duty without pay eight months after the guilty plea, but has still been officially on the department’s employment rolls. Although he has not been receiving a fire department paycheck for more than two years.

After a hearing early in 2024, an arbitrator ruled in Biscari’s favor that March. Biscari got a three-day unpaid suspension as his punishment for causing the fatal crash and the arbitrator ordered the city to pay Biscari back wages and benefits. He also told the city to pay the legal costs Local 42 accrued in pursing the grievance and directed the city to wipe Biscari’s personnel record clean of any reference to the fatal wreck.

The city appealed that decision soon after. Rather than limit his decision to whether Biscari’s suspension was justified, the city alleged that the arbitrator exceeded his authority.

He decided what Biscari’s punishment would be when that was not at issue in the grievance..

“He did so without any explanation of how he arrived at a three-day suspension,” the city said in its lawsuit. “But it amounted to one day for each death and one day for each million dollars that Firefighter’s fatality accident cost the City.”

Biscari took responsibility in court for his actions on the night of the crash. His attorney Kevin Regan said in a written statement that Biscari, “expressed his regret, sorry, sympathy, and concern to the victims’ families privately.”

The statement said Biscari “made a mistake in judgment.” But in his defense, Biscari’s legal team blamed the city for not installing technology that prompts traffic lights to change and give emergency vehicles the green light when they approach.

They also said the city knew the Westport intersection is dangerous and that the department failed to provide Biscari with adequate training on driving a pumper truck.

It was not the first time he’d driven through that same intersection at excessive speed, records showed. Three months before the fatal crash, a fire department medic accused Biscari of “horrendous driving” and said she feared for her life as he drove through that same intersection at 70 mph with no reason to go that fast.

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