Family of Driver Killed on Steep Beverly Hills Road Sues City

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The mother and son of a pickup truck driver who was fatally injured in a crash in Beverly Hills on the same steep street where two LAPD officers were killed in 2014 are suing the city, court papers show.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of Maria Caridade Rodrigues, the mother of 25-year-old Gerbis Gomes, and his son, Leonardo Maldonado, in Los Angeles Superior Court. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages.

Beverly Hills City Manager Mahdi Aluzri did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the complaint, which was filed last Tuesday.

The crash occurred about 8:20 a.m. Jan. 15 in the 800 block of Loma Vista Drive. Gomes, who was driving south toward Doheny Road when he struck a parked car, was trapped in the wreckage for about 30 minutes and died at a hospital about two hours after the crash, according to Beverly Hills police.

On March 7, 2014, a dump truck collided with a Los Angeles police car on the same street, killing Officer Nicholas Lee and injuring his partner.

On May 9, 2014, off-duty LAPD Detective Ernest Allen was killed when a concrete mixer collided with his vehicle on the same street.

"Although deaths were caused due to identical reasons as (Gomes') death, the city of Beverly Hills failed to properly reevaluate the roadway," the suit alleges. "These deaths were not a coincidence."

The street could have been redesigned so that it was less steep, according to the suit, which says speed bumps and signs warning of the perils of the street's incline also should have been put in place.

— City News Service, photo via Shutterstock