California IN BRIEF : OAKLAND : Lawyer Blasts Report on Bay Bridge Death

An attorney challenged a report concluding that the only person to die on the Bay Bridge in last October’s earthquake was driving improperly when her car plunged into a 50-foot gap on the upper deck. Anamafi Kalausa Moala was killed when her car pitched into the gap created when a section of the upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck in the 7.1 quake last Oct. 17, and her brother-in-law was severely injured. A California Highway Patrol report on the incident, which concluded Moala could have avoided the mishap, was released Friday by Richard Jaeger, a family attorney. The CHP report said Moala was driving too fast for conditions on the bridge--49 m.p.h., although the speed limit is 50 m.p.h.--and that other motorists tried to warn her by blinking headlights or honking horns. But her “attentiveness and reactions to the traffic, pedestrians and highway conditions was minimal,” the report said. Jaeger called the report a “whitewash” of the CHP’s and Caltrans’ handling of the huge traffic jam on the bridge and resulting confusion after the section of deck collapsed.