Exclusive: Sacramento paid $11 million settlement after car hit boy, grandmother in crosswalk
The city of Sacramento quietly paid an $11 million settlement to a family last year — one of the largest payouts in city history — after an elderly woman and her grandson were hit by a car in a crosswalk.
In January 2018, QuiChang Zhu, 72, and her grandson Jian Hao Kuang, 6, were using a crosswalk to cross Freeport Boulevard at Oregon Drive, according to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court. The intersection — located between South Land Park and Hollywood Park — has no traffic lights.
A sedan driver traveling north on Freeport Boulevard struck the pair, killing Zhu and causing severe injuries to Kuang, including catastrophic and permanent brain damage, the lawsuit said.
The crosswalk had existed for years on the busy corridor, but prior to the incident, it appeared the city had removed most of the paint, but left imprints or depressions where the painted rectangles had been, the lawsuit said.
“In fact, the markings left at this crossing had the dangerous effect of being visible to pedestrians giving the impression the crossing was still intended to be a marked crosswalk, but not being visible to approaching motorists on Freeport Boulevard,” the lawsuit said.
In addition, the city also removed pedestrian warning signs and painted advance warnings on the roadway, the lawsuit said.
The intersection, which is near Sutterville Elementary School and Centennial Christian Preschool, no longer appears to have imprints or depressions.
The City Council is required to approve all settlements over $100,000. The council discussed the case behind closed doors on Jan. 28, 2020, but a settlement was not announced in the public meeting that followed. The Sacramento Bee obtained the settlement agreement, finalized in February 2020, through a California Public Records Act request. The settlement was provided to The Bee on June 23, 2020.
City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood said the settlement will fund a special needs trust for Kuang. He will be unable to pursue regular employment, the lawsuit said.
“As the City Attorney for Sacramento, it often is my responsibility to help reconcile supremely tragic events that befall residents of our city,” Alcala Wood said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. “This case — which involved the death of a grandmother and the serious injury of a young boy as the result of a traffic collision — is certainly one of the most tragic. Our hearts go out to the Kuang family for the pain they have experienced and the losses they have suffered. The settlement agreement with the family was designed to include a special needs trust that ensures that Jianhao Kuang is cared for throughout his life. Meanwhile, the City remains committed to following all federal and state guidelines regarding the designs for our streets and to doing everything in our power to improve their safety.”
The settlement is believed to be the largest city payout since a $15 million payment to the family of a girl who died at Camp Sacramento in 2016.
City did not announce settlement in public
The City Council holds closed-session meetings, such as the one during which the settlement was discussed, when talking about issues in public could disadvantage the city, the public and taxpayers, city spokesman Tim Swanson said.
“An example of this is matters pertaining to pending litigation, as public discussion of the City’s legal assessment could benefit the opposing counsel,” Swanson said in an email. “Also, public discussion on certain matters could violate attorney/client privilege. If there was no report of actions taken by Council following this closed session, it would be because the Council did not take any reportable action related to the item in question, or the Brown Act did not require disclosure at that time.”
Because the council discussed the case before the settlement agreement was signed by the plaintiffs, state law did not require the city to announce the settlement in open session after they exited the closed meeting, said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition.
However, even if they are not required to, cities should announce settlements at public meetings when they are final, especially large payments, Snyder said.
“As a matter of policy, I think any city should publicly disclose a payment of this size, especially where as here it’s (one of) the largest ever,” Snyder said. “That’s a lot of money that might otherwise have been used to repair city streets, address the homelessness crisis, improve city services. The public is entitled to at least know about the amount and the underlying circumstances that led to such a payout.”
Similarly, the council discussed a separate case on Aug. 10, 2021, regarding a man shot by police, but did not announce a settlement in open session afterward. Three days later, plaintiffs signed a $3.25 million settlement agreement.
The Kuang settlement was included in a 320-page city staff report from June 2021 regarding the adoption of the city budget, but was not included in the actual budget.
The lawsuit claimed negligence/personal injury, negligence/wrongful death, and dangerous condition of public property. The plaintiffs were Kuang and Zhu’s two children. It named the city, Sacramento County and Gurdeep Chand Sidhu, 22, the driver, as defendants.
Sidhu paid a $100,000 settlement to the family. The county was never served with the lawsuit and never paid a settlement, a county spokeswoman said.
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the date the city of Sacramento provided details of the settlement to The Bee.
