A Marine Corps household whose 8-year-old son died final 12 months after he was struck by a car whereas using his bicycle on Camp Pendleton has sued the businesses that present housing on base to army households, alleging within the lawsuit that overgrown hedges at a residential intersection have been a “substantial issue” within the crash.
Lucas Antczak was fatally injured on Oct. 26 when he was struck in a neighborhood off Vandegrift Boulevard close to the San Luis Rey Gate. He died every week later, on Nov. 1, at Rady Youngsters’s Hospital in San Diego.
William and Brooke Antczak alleged of their lawsuit filed Friday in San Diego federal courtroom that Liberty Navy Housing, an organization that gives housing to army households on or close to bases across the nation, and two associated corporations “negligently designed, authorised, constructed, managed, supervised and/or maintained the landscaping” on the road nook the place the crash occurred.
The lawsuit alleged that overgrown bushes and hedges on the nook of Harris Avenue and East Barnett Circle “blocked the imaginative and prescient of visitors in each instructions … (and) created or elevated the foreseeable threat of individuals, like Lucas Antczak, being critically injured or killed. The damaging situation was a considerable consider inflicting Lucas Antczak’s loss of life, as a result of the landscaping made it troublesome or unimaginable for Lucas Antczak to see an oncoming car and for the car to see Lucas Antczak.”
The swimsuit additionally accused the motive force concerned within the lethal crash of motorized vehicle negligence.
“We have been devastated by the tragic accident that occurred in October 2024 at East Barnett Circle,” a spokesperson for Liberty Navy Housing mentioned in an announcement. “Our group members have joined neighbors locally in coming collectively in help of the household throughout this unhappy time. All the knowledge at present out there to Liberty signifies that the hedge didn’t play a task on this accident.”
The corporate has not but responded to the lawsuit in courtroom, nor has the motive force, who couldn’t be reached for remark.
In response to a Protection Division web site, William Antczak is a Marine Corps officer with the rank of captain as of final September. Paperwork contained within the lawsuit confirmed the household lived a couple of block from the place the crash occurred.
Craig McClellan, one of many attorneys representing the Antczak household, mentioned there’d been earlier complaints concerning the hedges in query. He mentioned they didn’t serve to dam entry to properties within the neighborhood nor obscure the properties from the views of passersby — they solely obscured the views of drivers, McClellan mentioned.
The swimsuit accused Liberty Navy Housing and the associated corporations of negligence for failure to take care of property and premises legal responsibility. It alleged that the defendants “had obtained enough and ample discover of the harmful situation that existed” due to the overgrown hedges, and {that a} crash such because the one involving Lucas was foreseeable.
“Defendants knew that the topic neighborhood was inhabited by many kids who rode bicycles and scooters across the neighborhood,” the lawsuit alleged. “Regardless of the ample and enough time to appropriate the harmful situation earlier than October 26, 2024, Defendants failed to take action.”
The swimsuit additionally alleged that the motive force “drove his car at too excessive of a velocity and/or didn’t take affordable steps to keep away from a collision with Lucas Antczak, corresponding to braking.”
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified quantity of financial and non-economic damages from the defendants.
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