Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Caught on tape: Tragic, but negligent?

A grainy surveillance video released Monday shows Brenda Lee Brown, 43, pushing her son's stroller across a car wash parking lot before being plowed down by a rogue black Isuzu Rodeo. Her family is suing the car wash for negligence in her death.

By Times Staff Writer
Published January 23, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Handout video] Video Watch the accident (Warning: graphic)

Opening arguments began today in the case of an accident at a car wash in which a woman pushing her baby in a stroller is run down by an SUV.

In this silent, grainy surveillance video that was released on Monday, Brenda Lee Brown, 43, pushes her son's stroller across a car wash parking lot. A black Isuzu Rodeo rolls, then speeds in her direction. She thrusts the stroller out of harm's way before the vehicle crashes into her.

The sport utility vehicle ends up in the street, cars swerving to avoid it. Brown lays crumpled on the ground, unmoving.
Two days later, Mother's Day 2005, she dies of her injuries.

In the trial this week, a jury will decide whether the tragedy was a freak accident or the result of negligence by Town ’N Country Car Wash.

Steve Yerrid, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the carwash’s corporate owner on behalf of Brown’s widower and young son, said the case is about more than a grieving family.

“Corporate homicide,” he said. “This lady lost her life because this corporation acted so badly.”

The attorney representing Two Brothers of Spring Hill, the carwash’s owners, did not return a call for comment Friday. In court documents, the company has denied any wrongdoing.

Authorities did not criminally charge Densil Blake, the 50-year-old carwash employee sitting in the Rodeo’s driver seat. In their official report, they said he was wiping down the vehicle’s interior when he accidentally shifted it into drive.

As the SUV rolled forward, he mistakenly hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. Blake later said he panicked.

Yerrid will show jurors the tragic scene. Authorities didn’t have the security video during their initial investigation, he said last week. The man who runs the business, a former officer with the Philadelphia Police Department, failed to reveal to investigators that such a tape existed, court documents show.

Yerrid, who last year won a $216.8-million medical malpractice jury award, said he learned of the tape during his firm’s investigation into the incident. He argued in court pleadings that the carwash’s failure to disclose it provides a basis for punitive damages.

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 16:36:34]