News

Run Over by Metro

Continued from page 4

On June 4, 2002, a Metro trolley killed 48-year-old construction worker Clinton Gregory Jr. as he crossed Milam at Prairie. The trolley hit and dragged Clinton with its left front tire. The Houston City Council responded with a public hearing on pedestrian safety downtown and later passed its first pedestrian-protection ordinance.

Two months after Gregory's death, the issue still wasn't going away, much to Metro's dismay.

"Due to the high-profile nature of the claim (the first of trolley/pedestrian accidents), we run the risk of more 'bad press' if the settlement process is prolonged," Metro claims supervisor Elaine Lum warned in an internal e-mail dated August 12, 2002, and sent to senior attorney Randy Frazier Jr., director of risk management Tim Kriner and claims manager Irma Salazar. "Therefore, I am asking that you please contact each of these attorneys directly to coordinate the documents we need in order to pay this claim."

Other internal documents demonstrate Metro's efforts to save a few bucks, even when the evidence is heavily stacked against it.

On June 20, 1999, Father's Day, a Metro bus killed 71-year-old pedestrian Gustavo Tamez. The rear right tire crushed his skull. Metro's investigation found that the driver was off-route at the time of the accident and fled the scene.

"MTA does not have a defense," reported Metro's claims committee. "The bus operator lied about his involvement...I cannot perceive how we cannot do anything but accept liability for the accident."

Metro successfully concealed from the public its shared responsibility for Tamez's death. The driver had failed a drug test days prior to the accident, and Metro let him get behind the wheel anyway.

Metro deputy general counsel Alva Trevino wrote in an e-mail dated February 22, 2001, to Kriner, Salazar and claims adjuster Gail Mitchell:

"Our bus operator had been given a random drug test four days before the accident and had tested positive for marijuana. The post accident results however, were negative...Even though he tested negative on the date of the accident, it does not look good for us that we did not pull him as soon as we had knowledge that he had tested positive for marijuana..."

Metro's claims committee recommended a settlement of $95,000.

Kriner began negotiations at $87,500; the family settled for $91,000.

The Press asked Metro's spokeswoman why it routinely lowballs its victims.

"Sometimes cases are settled for less than the recommended amount, and sometimes they are settled for more than the recommended amount," Roberts replied.

The Press did not find a single instance in which Metro settled for more than the amount recommended by its claims committee.

On May 14, 2004, Friendswood resident Georgia Young was on her way to a University of Houston graduation ceremony to watch her son-in-law receive his diploma. She was walking with her husband of 30 years, Rod, and their son, Aaron.

The family was crossing Elgin at Cullen when a turning Metro bus knocked Georgia 17 feet through the air. Rod was also hit and suffered minor injuries. Aaron managed to leap out of the bus's path.

Blood poured from Georgia's nose, face and ears. She suffered severe head trauma that landed her in the neurosurgical intensive care unit at Ben Taub General Hospital for a month.

Today the 59-year-old has no recollection of the accident. Doctors report that her personality has changed significantly. She is childlike. Her judgment and decision-making abilities are impaired. She's forgetful and easily confused. She suffers from vertigo and dizziness, severe depression and persistent shoulder and neck pain.

Georgia's estimated medical and prescription costs for the first seven months after the accident ran to $200,000. Her ongoing treatment will likely exceed a half-million dollars during the next five years.

Metro cut Georgia Young a check for $100,000.

Its claims committee recommended providing Rod and Aaron $25,000 each.

Metro instead offered them $5,000 apiece, which they readily accepted.

Andrea Larsen relocated from Boston to Houston in late August 1999 to work as a financial analyst for Enron. Eleven months later, while on her way to a doctor's appointment on the north side, Larsen was in a crosswalk with a "Walk" signal and was nearly all the way to the curb when she "turned around and saw the grill of the bus, maybe two feet away."

Metro driver Raymond Griffin made a wide left turn through the intersection and hit the 28-year-old just below the butt. Thrown 25 feet, she skidded on her back across the pavement and landed with her head to the curb.

The bus continued forward and rode over both her legs.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't see you," Griffin, who still drives buses for Metro, called from the doorway.

Larsen thought she was paralyzed. But she never lost consciousness.

"So I'm lying there, under the bus, freaking out," she recalls one recent Sunday afternoon at a cafe near her home in the Heights. "I was yelling at people: 'Isn't there a doctor? We're outside a hospital!' "

She directed a passerby to get the cell phone from her purse, dial her parents in eastern Pennsylvania and hold the phone to her ear.

"Mom, I was just run over by a bus!" she cried. "I'm under the bus right now! You need to get to Houston!"

An ambulance arrived and transported Larsen to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Black tire-tread marks covered her calves; her shins were completely skinned and pocked with gravel.

Doctors took X-rays and discovered something extraordinary: no broken bones.

Larsen couldn't believe it.

Her backpack, which contained a date planner, wallet, cell phone and "an Altoids case smooshed flat," broke her fall and kept her head from cracking against the pavement. Doctors couldn't explain how her legs withstood the impact of a 26,000-pound vehicle.

Larsen was lucky to be alive. But she has suffered from chronic pain ever since.

The hospital released her late that afternoon. Her father helped carry her up three flights of stairs to her apartment. That night, shooting pains blasted through her body.

For six months after the accident, she never left her apartment building. She couldn't sit up or stand long enough to cook. She couldn't walk or drive. Her mother, who nursed her for six weeks after the accident, bought her slip-on shoes because she couldn't bend to reach her feet.

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