San Diego pays $7 million to family of cyclist hit by cars on Old Town bike route

SAN DIEGO — San Diego is paying out $7 million to the daughter of a cyclist who was paralyzed and eventually died after he was hit by multiple cars in the heart of Old Town three years ago.

The payout settles a lawsuit against the city alleging that the design of Congress Street near San Diego Avenue forces cars to back blindly and dangerously from a parking lot into a marked bicycle route.

Marc Woolf, 58 at the time, was hit in May 2021 by an SUV driver backing out of a restaurant parking lot onto Congress, catapulting him into the opposite lane of traffic where he was struck by a second vehicle, the lawsuit said.

The crash left Woolf, who was commuting home from his job at the San Diego Zoo, quadriplegic. He died of sepsis 16 months later in September 2022.

The case highlights struggles by San Diego and other cities to create new bike routes that keep cyclists safe, not put them in danger.

Woolf’s daughter, Denice Simmons, said Tuesday that the money can’t bring her father back.

“This settlement is a bittersweet victory because my father didn’t live to see justice served,” she said. “No amount of money can bring him back or erase the pain he suffered, but this outcome honors his memory by holding those responsible accountable and prompting much-needed public safety measures.”

One of those measures was the city agreeing to extend the red zone on Congress to prevent parked cars from blocking view corridors adjacent to where her father was hit.

“My dad’s life was cut short because of a preventable hazard, and while we can’t change what happened, we hope this settlement will lead to safer streets so that no other family has to go through what we did,” Simmons said.

The case highlights the potential dangers of “sharrows,” marked bike routes that require cars and bicycles to share portions of roadway instead of giving cyclists areas reserved only for them.

According to court documents, Woolf was riding his bicycle north at or near the 2300 blockof Congress when he was struck by a driver backing out of a driveway. Woolf was thrown into the southbound lane of Congress, where another driver hit him.

In addition to the city, the lawsuit sought compensation from nearby property owners.

Simmons has received another $3.3 million from other defendants, according to her lawyers, Dicks & Workman of San Diego and Balaban & Spielberger of Brentwood.