For six months, Elisabeth Kavanaugh has been fighting with the Humboldt Transit Authority (HTA) after she experienced a hit and run and was rear-ended by an HTA bus on June 6, 2023, at the Myrtle Ave intersection.
“Our lights turned green at the same time and I went straight and he went left and in the middle of the intersection and he swung too wide, I guess I wasn’t looking at the time, and the next thing I know, I heard a really loud crunching sound,” Kavanaugh said. “My car starts to swivel and shake and I freak out and look up and there’s a bus directly on my car over me.”
Kavanaugh was on her way to pick up her kid from daycare when this accident occurred. In the police report, the responding officer noted the bus “drove away” and wrote down that the driver of the bus was “VC section 20002 (a)”– that is the code for a “misdemeanor hit and run.”
The damage to Kavanaugh’s car was minor. However, she experienced neck and shoulder pain after the accident. She paid out of pocket for chiropractor services. Within three weeks, she filed her claim with HTA. At this point, to move forward in her claim she needed HTA to locate the video from the bus that rear-ended her.
On September 4, 2023, HTA had still not provided the Eureka Police Department with any footage or information regarding the driver, bus number or insurance due to a “COVID outbreak” in the office and could not locate footage due to staffing issues. After that, Kavanaugh was told nothing for months. She waited six months for her claim to be paid and for something to be done in the hit-and-run.
“I don’t think what they did was fair,” Kavanaugh said. “They made a mistake–I just wanted my car fixed. I just wanted the damage that they caused to be fixed. And instead, I’ve been fighting with them ever since.”
Last week Redwood News contacted the Humboldt Transit Authority regarding this case. The general manager, Greg Pratt, told us over the phone that he couldn’t comment on this case specifically. But when one of their buses is involved in an accident, the driver is required to call their supervisor immediately and stay on the scene to speak with the police. He also said that it’s in the transit authority’s best interest to pay out claims as quickly as possible. But that hadn’t happened in this case. Within 36 hours of our phone call to the general manager, a representative from the HTA’s claim service reached out to Kavanaugh.
“She called me and left me a voicemail, basically stating that they had just received the claim from June,” Kavanaugh said in an interview with a Redwood News reporter on Dec. 18. “So she called me as soon as they finally handed it over, I guess. She said that she needed a couple of additional things, like my proof of insurance, my proof of ownership. So it all matches between the claim that they received from me back in June.”
Kavanaugh sent in the information they requested on Friday, Dec. 15. As of Monday afternoon, Dec. 18, she hasn’t heard where her claim stands.
We reached out to the Humboldt Transit Authority again this morning for comment. They didn’t respond as of news time. Redwood News will continue to follow this story as more information and updates are revealed.
