A Superior Court judge Thursday ordered the city to pay more than $3.4 million to the family of a mother and daughter killed four years ago when their car was broad-sided by a fire truck at a downtown intersection.
In an 18-page decision, Judge Theodore Tyma ruled that Firefighter David Otero was negligent when he drove through a red traffic light at Congress Street and Housatonic Avenue on July 31, 2007, crashing into the car occupied by Essie Williams, 76, and her 58-year-old daughter, Gwendolyn Little.
Little, of Willow Street, died at the scene while her mother, of Platt Street, died eight months later from her injuries.
"The plaintiffs have proven by a fair preponderance of the evidence that Otero was negligent in failing to keep a proper lookout as he drove Ladder 5 into and across the intersection of Congress Street and Housatonic Avenue," the judge wrote. "There is no plausible reason, notwithstanding Otero’s explanatory testimony, why he stopped looking to his left and right as he proceeded through the busy and heavily traveled intersection while continually accelerating his approximately 37 ton truck."
The judge rendered a total award for Little’s death against the city of $1,268,236.80 and $2,160,662.70 on behalf of her mother.
The lawyer for Little and Williams did not return calls for comment.
