Topical Blog Post #3

City of Alameda settles lawsuit filed by San Jose doctor's family

By Peter Hegarty

Bay Area News Group

San Jose Mercury News

Posted: 05/07/2009 02:25:09 PM PDT

Updated: 05/07/2009 02:25:10 PM PDT

The city of Alameda has agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle a lawsuit with the family of Dr. Zehra Attari, the San Jose pediatrician who died after she drove off a boat ramp into the Oakland-Alameda Estuary more than three years ago.

The family initially was seeking $11 million, arguing the city was negligent because it did not install adequate safety measures at the ramp, which is at the foot of Grand Street and slopes directly into the estuary.

"The settlement agreement is very specific in that both parties do not admit responsibility or negligence," City Attorney Teresa Highsmith said Wednesday.

The 55-year-old Attari vanished on a rainy evening in November 2005 as she was driving from her Oakland medical office to a conference on Bay Farm Island in Alameda.

Investigators found her submerged gray Honda Accord 43 days later, after they received a tip that someone matching her description was seen near the ramp.

At the time Attari disappeared, just a sign with the word "End" and a blinking red light warned motorists that the street was about to end.

The city later installed a temporary barricade.

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Is Justice Really Blind?

While there might have been a road marking deficiency at the Oakland-Alameda Estuary, that does not absolve a 55-year-old physician from driving off a boat ramp in the middle of the night.

Holes in the story:

1. The person was a middle-aged female physician (she was very educated and had extensive driving experience).
   
2. She was headed to a night conference at Bay Farm Island (an affluent neighborhood physically divided off from the rest of Alameda, not a professional site).
   
3. The ramp she drove off had the typical "End" sign of a dead-end street with a flashing red warning light (both of which she ignored).

Though the death of this doctor is horrible, it was completely preventable. The city of Alameda had correctly identified the road condition. The doctor was responsible for choosing to drive through a dead-end street with two warning signs "to stop."

Even those who own boats have to be very careful when backing their own boats and trailers down boat ramps. If they reverse too far and submerge their own vehicles, they are responsible, not the owner of the boat ramp.

Yet, the doctor's family sued the city of Alameda for negligence, and after three years settled for $2.25 million.

I seriously doubt that there would be have been any financial settlement had the driver been an average person with a substandard education and lacking the ability to obtain expensive legal counsel. In that situation, like most boat ramp accidents, the cause of the incident and subsequent injury or death would have been negligent driving, and thus, the driver's fault.

Justice might be blind, but like most sightless people, can still feel the difference between a $1 bill and

a $100 bill.