Sleeping Beachgoer Run Over by Maintenance Truck Sues Long Beach

A sleeping beachgoer run over by a truck allegedly driven by a Long Beach city maintenance worker is suing the city and the driver.

Jonathan Soto filed the negligence suit Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the city of Long Beach and driver Stanley Willie Delaney, who was picking up trash for the city Department of Parks, Recreation & Marine. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

A representative for the Long Beach City Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

According to the complaint, Soto was napping on an area of the beach near the 5400 block of Ocean Boulevard on Feb. 4 between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. when he was struck by a 2006 Dodge Ram pickup truck containing Delaney and a passenger.

”(Soto) was asleep and did not hear Delaney approach in the ... vehicle,” the suit states. “Delaney failed to see plaintiff napping on the beach despite plaintiff being within Delaney’s clear and unobstructed line of vision.”

Soto suffered a broken pelvis and other injuries, the suit states.

Delaney was traveling at an unsafe speed and was distracted by his passenger, according to the lawsuit.

On Sept. 15, a sunbather was injured after allegedly being run over by a Los Angeles County vehicle at Venice Beach. In Santa Monica, police are investigating a man’s claim he was run over just north of the municipal pier.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.