Jury Awards $48.8 Million to Pedestrian Left Comatose by L.A. Sanitation Truck

On August 1, 2024, Kamran Hakimi was crossing the street at Ventura Boulevard and Hayvenhurst Avenue in Encino. He was inside a marked crosswalk with the pedestrian signal in his favor. A City of Los Angeles sanitation truck made an unsafe right turn as he stepped through it. A handlebar on the front of the truck hit the front of his head and threw him through the air. His head struck the asphalt when he landed.

Hakimi, 61 at the time, was briefly responsive in the moments after the collision and even gave bystanders a thumbs up. His condition collapsed soon after he reached the hospital. Doctors diagnosed a traumatic brain injury, an acute subdural hematoma, and cerebral edema, and they performed multiple procedures to control intracranial hypertension. He slipped into a vegetative state and remained comatose, dependent on round-the-clock medical care, through the time of trial nearly a year later.

The City of Los Angeles admitted before trial that its driver's negligence was the sole cause of the crash. It contested the rest. City lawyers disputed the value of Hakimi's damages and argued about how long a man in his condition might be expected to live. The City Attorney's Office rejected every demand and offered no money to settle, taking the case to a jury on damages alone.

Rahul Ravipudi and Brian Panish of Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP tried the case in the Van Nuys courthouse of Los Angeles County Superior Court, before Judge Valerie Salkin. The trial team laid out the mechanics of the collision, the medical record from the first responders forward, and the lifetime cost of caring for a patient who cannot care for himself. They asked the jury to account for both the economic burden and the human toll on a man who lost the ability to communicate or move on his own.

The jury deliberated less than a day. On July 17, 2025, it returned a verdict of $48,792,870.53, reported in coverage as $48.8 million. Of that figure, $35 million was assigned to Hakimi's past and future pain and suffering, with the balance covering medical care and economic losses. The City had not put a single dollar on the table before the panel reached its number.