Mom of Crash Victim Blames City Road

The mother of a passenger of a car which careened down a hill at Marco Forster Middle School last year and burst into flames has filed a claim with the city that a road defect is in part to blame for the fatal accident.

A claim is often the precursor to a lawsuit.

This claim, however, was filed too late, and the city’s insurance adjuster and City Attorney Omar Sandoval are recommending the City Council deny the claim at its Tuesday meeting.

On Aug. 16, 2011, a Jeep driven by Alex Goodrich, then 21, of Dana Point, was seen driving at high speeds, then at below the road.

Goodrich was able to pull himself out, but his passenger, Bryan Ferguson, also 21 of Dana Point, was not. Motorists who stopped to help and coaches of a high school baseball team practicing nearby were horrified as they heard Ferguson cry for help but could do nothing as the car was engulfed by fire.

The Orange County District Attorney’s office .

Assistant District Attorney Nancy Hayashida told Patch in January that various traffic infractions led to the accident, among them speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road and running "at least one" red light.

"Witnesses said he was traveling at a very high rate of speed for a very long time," Hayashida said.

However, Jo Anne Ferguson, Bryan’s mother and a Dana Point resident, believes a “road design or defect” is one cause for the accident, according to the claim she filed with the city.

Ferguson’s attorneys from the law office of Schumann, Rollo & Rosenberg of Costa Mesa, first filed Ferguson’s claim with the state. When that was denied, they filed a similar claim with Orange County before finally realizing that the roadway at the site of the accident is within the city of San Juan Capistrano.

Attorney Edye A. Hill described the mistake as "excusable neglect and inadvertance of counsel."

Sandoval wrote in his report to City Council that even if Jo Anne Ferguson had filed her claim on time, he would still recommend denial.

“Mr. Goodrich appears to be the only cause of the accident,” Sandoval wrote.