A truck driver who was injured in a crash on the same steep Beverly Hills street where two Los Angeles police officers were killed earlier this year filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.
Eric Johnson’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges a dangerous condition of public property exists. He’s seeking unspecified damages.
Representative of the two cities — the stretch of Loma Vista Drive where the crashes occurred is near the Beverly Hills-Los Angeles border — could not be immediately reached.
The suit states that Johnson was driving a truck owned by his employer, Associated Ready Mixed Concrete Inc., on May 2 along Loma Vista Drive when the brakes went out. The truck rammed parked vehicles and overturned, and Johnson was seriously hurt, according to his court papers.
The lawsuit alleges Loma Vista Drive is a “concealed trap” plagued by “dangerous design, construction and maintenance” as well as inadequate signage, and alleges that large, heavy trucks should not have been allowed on the street because of its steep grade.
On May 9, off-duty LAPD Detective Ernest Allen, who was assigned to the Southwest Station, was killed when his car collided with a concrete mixer along Loma Vista Drive. His family is also suing the cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.
LAPD Officer Nicholas Lee was killed on the same street March 7 when a truck collided with his patrol car.
