By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- A Los Angeles jury awarded $28 million on Aug. 13 to motorcyclist Robert Danbom, whose leg was amputated below the knee after colliding with a Los Angeles Fire Department truck in 2021.
- The lawsuit alleged the fire truck failed to stop or slow down before entering the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, where Danbom had the green light.
- Danbom’s attorney said the LAFD driver claimed in a scene interview that the truck had stopped, but video evidence presented at trial showed it did not.
- The verdict is among a series of large payouts by the city over alleged reckless driving by municipal employees, with annual settlement and judgment costs rising from $64 million about a decade ago to $289 million last year.
- The Los Angeles Fire Department and city attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury awarded $28 million on Aug. 13 to a motorcyclist whose leg was amputated after a Los Angeles Fire Department truck struck him at an East Hollywood intersection, according to court records and the plaintiff’s attorney.
Robert Danbom was riding his motorcycle north on Vermont Avenue on Sept. 2, 2021, when a city fire truck traveling west entered his path at the intersection with Sunset Boulevard. Danbom’s lawsuit alleged he had only seconds to react before the 65,000-pound truck struck him, dislocating his shoulder and disfiguring his leg, which was later amputated below the knee. The lawsuit alleged the truck failed to stop or slow before entering the intersection, in violation of department driving standards presented at trial requiring the lead apparatus in a convoy to stop at all red lights and stop signs.
Attorney Filippo Marchino of the X-Law Group, who represented Danbom, said video from the scene showed the truck moving through the intersection without stopping, contradicting testimony from the truck’s operator, Vincent Leong, who told investigators at the scene that he had slowed and confirmed no one was approaching before proceeding through what he described as a blind intersection.
Marchino said the city did not engage in settlement discussions before trial. The Los Angeles Fire Department and city attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The verdict is the latest in a series of large payouts by the city stemming from crashes involving municipal vehicles. The city’s annual settlement and judgment costs have risen from about $64 million a decade ago to $289 million last year, according to city data. In 2025, a jury awarded nearly $49 million to a man left in a coma after being struck by a city garbage truck, and in 2024, a motorcyclist received $11 million after being hit by a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power vehicle.
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has attributed the rising costs to juries she says have grown more skeptical of local government, while some plaintiffs’ attorneys have said her office has taken too many weak cases to trial rather than settling. Feldstein Soto did not advance past the June primary in her reelection bid.