Dallas City Council voted to spend $740,000 of taxpayer money on payouts to litigants over car accidents involving City employees, according to a report by KERA News:
“That includes up to $55,000 to be paid out after a Dallas Animal Services employee hit another car while changing lanes. That car in turn hit another car in the lane in an adjacent lane, according to court records.
“Up to $270,000 will be paid to a motorist whose car was hit when a Dallas Sanitation Services truck made a U-turn and struck it.
“In another case, a Dallas firefighter driving a fire truck failed to ‘yield to traffic.’ The collision resulted in ‘serious, permanent, disfiguring and life-changing injuries’ to the plaintiff, according to court records. The woman who was injured will get up to $280,000.
“Dallas Police Department and Dallas Water Utilities employees also were involved in collisions.
“’I’m concerned about the number and the size of some of these cases,’ District 14 Council Member Paul Ridley said during the meeting. ‘I call on the city manager to review our policies and procedures with regard to driver training and driver repercussions that cause accidents.’
“Ridley said the city needed to get a handle on the situation and said it seemed to be getting ‘out of control.’”
To read the entire article by KERA News, please click HERE.