The LA County Board of Supervisors has approved a $17.2 million settlement in 2020 for families injured when a sheriff’s deputy crashed a car the wrong way while driving twice the posted speed limit.
The settlement announced this week is one of more than 160 payouts over the past three years in car accidents involving deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The accident has cost the county more than $22 million, a figure that has raised concerns among county supervisors and sparked a movement calling for measures to address driving safety.
Supervisor Janice Hahn, who authored the motion, called the 2020 crash “devastating” and said the proposal would ask the department to analyze existing policies and review driver discipline systems.
“Even though it’s bigger in terms of the high cost,” he said of the 2020 crash, “it’s unfortunately part of a trend we’ve seen in the Sheriff’s Department — deputies are having dangerous and sometimes fatal car accidents.”
In an emailed statement, the Sheriff’s Department said it is “actively improving” training for deputies, including better driving.
“Ensuring the safety of our personnel and members of the public on the road is a priority, and every employee behind the wheel plays an important role in upholding our safety standards for safe driving,” the statement said. “We recognize the problem of preventable traffic collisions and share our concerns about the impact on the community and our employees.”
Lawyers for the injured families say they’re getting paid because the toddler — who was hurt the most in the crash — has struggled through multiple surgeries.
“It was a very tragic event and fortunately no one died, but the whole family’s life was changed,” lawyer Ryan Casey told The Times. “There was no reason for the deputy to act at that speed.”
In the incident of January 2020, Romelia Chaidez in a car with three children, driving the eldest son to high school in the city of Paramount. On the way, two Lakewood Station sheriff’s deputies swerved out of their lane to avoid hitting another driver who suddenly turned left in front of them, according to a summary of the incident from the District Advisory Office.
The patrol vehicle reached the median, then struck Chaidez and her children as they drove east on Somerset Boulevard.
According to the family lawsuit filed later in the district court, Deputy Nicholas Baudino – who was behind the wheel – did not light or siren in time, and drove more than twice the posted speed limit of 35-mph.
Although the district attorney’s summary said Baudino had been looking for a vehicle that had evaded him a few days earlier, the deputy in the passenger seat said in the deposition that they were not in pursuit of the suspect at the time of the accident. He also said that before the accident he told Baudino that he should “drive slower.”
The force of the crash caused Chaidez’s 4-year-old daughter’s seat belt to open, sending the girl flying from her booster seat. He was so badly injured that his mother and siblings initially thought he had died, according to the complaint.
The family’s lawyer said he suffered “horrendous” facial injuries which left him permanently disabled and required further surgery.
An internal department review determined that the deputy was driving too fast and that his actions violated department policy. In a statement this week, the department said “administrative action” was taken against the deputy behind the wheel. Officials did not specify what was involved, but the department confirmed that the deputy parted ways with the department in March.
Over the past five years, the department’s internal review found that Lakewood Station deputies were involved in 204 crashes, 133 of which were deemed preventable — including the crash involving the Chaidez family.
On Tuesday, the district also approved the settlement in another case involving a car accident that happened later that same year, when traffic on the 71 Freeway stopped suddenly and the deputy crashed into the car in front of him. The driver of the car was taken to hospital with complaints of back, shoulder and arm pain.
The department determined that the responsible representative did not violate any policy. He attended driver’s training classes and officials said he never had an accident. The county agreed to settle the case for $285,000.
During the council’s discussion of driving representatives this week, Supervisor Hilda Solis – another author of the motion – noted that the department’s accident-related payouts have exceeded the amount of settlements in the last three years combined.
The motion approved during Tuesday’s meeting calls for the Sheriff’s Department to develop a plan to reduce the number of traffic collisions, update the traffic collision point system, review training and policies, and begin providing a confidential written report to the council every 90 days on related accidents. department personnel.
Solis called the number of deputy crashes in recent years “amazing,” and said, “Imagine a call for service being delayed because a deputy was involved in an accident on the road.”
