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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

St. Paul / Death claim settled for $175K

Please click onto the COMMENTS for the story.

posted by Bob at Wednesday, April 07, 2010

4 Comments:

Anonymous Pioneer Press said...

City to pay family of woman hit by ambulance

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 04/06/2010 11:56:18 PM CDT


The St. Paul City Council is set to approve today a $175,000 settlement with the family of a woman killed when an ambulance ran over her.

The victim, Margaret Kuehn, 79, was standing in the alley behind her home in the 1600 block of James Avenue on June 20 when an ambulance responded to a car accident. An elderly driver had crashed through a privacy fence in the Walgreens parking lot, crossed over a retaining wall and landed in the adjacent alley.

The ambulance backed up and hit Kuehn, who possibly had gone into the alley to see what was going on. The ambulance driver, Thomas Murakami, was not charged with a crime.

But an attorney for Kuehn's family, Patrick O'Neill, said in a written claim to the city on July 23 that Murakami "willfully disregarded St. Paul Fire Department written standard operating procedure by driving in reverse without hand guidance by one of his crew members or a police officer."

"The duty further required Mr. Murakami to maintain a proper lookout, anticipate the presence of others, and take all necessary precautions to avoid an accident," O'Neill wrote.

Neither O'Neill nor Kuehn's daughter, Lisa Cline, returned messages seeking comment late Tuesday.

State law limited the city's financial responsibility in the death to $400,000.

City council president Kathy Lantry said the family and the city arrived at the $175,000 figure by considering several factors, including what a jury might decide and the costs of a trial.

"I think the desire of the family was to have some closure here, and certainly for the city also," Lantry said.
Setting an amount is difficult, she said.

"What's the value of a person's life? It makes my stomach ache. There's no good that comes from any of this."

Kuehn was a longtime resident of the Macalester-Groveland/Highland Park area. She was remembered at her funeral at Holy Spirit Catholic Church as a doting grandmother and a familiar face in the neighborhood, where she regularly walked her dog, Ashley.

Several St. Paul firefighters attended the service.

Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522.

4:12 PM  
Blogger Bob said...

It's is a crying shame this ambulance ran over someone. It's also a crying shame the citizen this ambulance was called for has to pay a fee of 1200 to 1500 dollars for the service. A service the tax payers already paid for.

The tax payers bought the ambulance. The tax payers pay the paramedics. The tax payers paid for the garage to house this equipment. And then we get it up the ass with a fee when we need the service.

Maybe the tax payers will pay all expenses to put me in business and incur all cost so I can have 100% profit.

8:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, actually Bob, because of budget cuts the City has to bill people for the services provided. The monies collected for ambulance rides goes back to service the ambulance and pay for the paramedics. Each year in the budget a certain amount of monies is assumed to come in as revenue for the service.

Thank you Governor Pawlenty for tightening the cities budget for us.

JMONTOMEPPOF

Chuck Repke

12:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

JMONTOMEPPOF
Chuck Repke
said 12:46 PM
Thank you Governor Pawlenty for tightening the cities budget for us


Chris Coleman might be over spending our budget, or helping out the unions with unnecessary construction.
Witch is it?
Keeping on these city employees that are not earning their wages, start cleaning house by hiring people that will work hard for their pay checks.

7:41 AM  

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