$32.4 Million Arbitration Award After KCFD Engine Killed Three at Westport Intersection

On December 15, 2021, KCFD Pumper 19 driver Dominic Biscari drove a 45,000-pound fire engine through a red light at Westport Road and Broadway Boulevard in Kansas City at approximately 50 mph, well above the posted 35 mph limit. Dispatch had instructed the truck to stand down roughly one minute before the crash. Biscari did not brake.

The engine struck a Honda CRV, killing driver Jennifer San Nicolas, 41, and passenger Michael Elwood, 25. The force of the collision drove both vehicles into the former Riot Room building. Tami Knight, 41, who was standing on the sidewalk, was killed when the building partially collapsed onto her. A fourth person walking nearby, Alexander Llera, was injured.

The crash prompted immediate civil actions. Internal KCFD records that surfaced during litigation showed that a department employee had sent an email titled 'Horrendous Driving' roughly ten weeks before the collision, describing Biscari operating a truck at 70 mph in the same area and causing a critically ill patient to go airborne inside an ambulance. The arbitrator later found that Biscari had also made 'blatantly false statements to police' in the hours after the crash.

Tim Dollar of Dollar, Burns, Becker and Hershewe represented the parents of Michael Elwood. In binding arbitration, the arbitrator found Biscari negligent and awarded $32.4 million across all claimants: $9 million to Elwood's parents, $11 million to Knight's family, $9 million to San Nicolas's family, $2 million to Llera, and $1.4 million to Broadway-Westport Property Inc., the owner of the damaged building. Jackson County Circuit Judge Jennifer Phillips confirmed the award on November 3, 2022.

Because Biscari could not satisfy a judgment of that size personally, Kansas City assumed responsibility for the arbitration award. In January 2023, the city paid $1.4 million to the families as part of its portion of the resolution. The city council had also approved separate payments totaling approximately $1.8 million to settle related vicarious-liability lawsuits brought directly against the city. Biscari pleaded guilty in February 2023 to three counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and received three years of supervised probation.