City appropriates $1.8 million for lawsuits filed in deadly Westport fire-truck crash

Kansas City’s City Council approved transferring $1.8 million to help pay for lawsuits filed after a fire truck slammed into a vehicle and a building in Westport, killing three people last December.

Dominic Biscari was driving Pumper 19 on Dec. 15 when the Kansas City Fire Department truck entered the intersection at Westport Road and Broadway Boulevard with its lights and sirens on. It collided with a Honda CRV and the force of the crash sent the vehicles careening to the northwest, where they struck a pedestrian before slamming into a building.

The Honda’s occupants, Jennifer San Nicolas and Michael Elwood, and pedestrian Tami Knight, were killed. San Nicolas and Elwood worked at the restaurant Ragazza, and Knight was a Kansas City Public Schools employee. All three were from Kansas City.

Lawsuits were filed on behalf of the three victims and the building’s property owner alleging Biscari was negligent and traveling too fast.

In October, retired Judge Miles Sweeney — assigned to oversee arbitration proceedings in the wrongful death claims — found that Biscari’s driving was reckless.

Sweeney awarded $9 million to parents of Elwood; $11 million to the mother of Knight, and $2 million to Knight’s romantic partner; and $9 million to the mother of San Nicolas. Another $1.4 million was awarded to the company that owns the destroyed building.

Earlier this month, Jackson County Judge Jennifer Phillips approved the $32 million arbitration award.

The funds appropriated from the City Council on Thursday will be transferred from the general fund to the legal expense fund.