$27.4 Million Verdict Against San Francisco After MUNI Truck Kills 4-Year-Old on Mission District Sidewalk

On the afternoon of February 11, 2003, a Municipal Railway worker was driving a city repair truck along Potrero Avenue in San Francisco's Mission District when, according to witnesses, he attempted to run a red light at the intersection with 24th Street. The truck collided with another vehicle and the impact sent it up onto the sidewalk, where it pinned a four-year-old girl against the wall of a nearby pizza parlor. She died at the scene.

Three other pedestrians were walking with the child at the time: her mother, a family friend, and the friend's grandmother, who suffered a leg injury. All three were also struck or traumatized in the crash.

Plaintiff attorneys Brian Panish and Kevin Boyle of Panish, Shea and Boyle, joined by Kirk Bernard, presented the case to a twelve-person jury over three and a half weeks. The central dispute was the driver's conduct at the intersection. The defense did not contest that the crash occurred but challenged the degree of negligence involved.

After five days of deliberation, the jury found the city's driver 100 percent at fault. The panel awarded compensatory damages totaling $27,394,567. More than $20 million of that went to the child's parents. The jury declined to award punitive damages, finding the driver had not acted with malice toward any victim.

The San Francisco city attorney's office described the verdict as excessive and indicated it was evaluating an appeal, though no appellate decision reducing the award has been identified in public records. Separately, the driver faced a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge in criminal court. San Francisco city officials also added new crosswalk markings and a crossing guard to the intersection following the crash.

The $27.4 million figure stood, at the time of the verdict, as the largest personal-injury award ever returned against the City and County of San Francisco, according to the city attorney's own office.