An arbitrator ordered Kansas City to pay firefighter Dominic Biscari back wages and benefits after a fire truck he drove killed three people in Westport in December 2021. The award followed the city's decision to fire him.
Judge Sides With Arbitrator Over City's Objections
The city argued that the arbitrator exceeded his authority, according to FOX4 Kansas City. The union's grievance over Biscari's discipline proceeded through arbitration under the collective bargaining agreement. Kansas City challenged the arbitration ruling after arbitrator Leland Shurin ordered the city to make Biscari financially whole rather than terminate him.
Biscari was driving a KCFD fire truck that crashed into an SUV on December 15, 2021, killing Jennifer San Nicolas, Michael Elwood and Tami Knight. Black box data recorder telemetry from the truck, known as Pumper 19, later showed Biscari was traveling approximately 51 mph in a 35 mph zone with full throttle engaged at the moment of impact, according to KCUR.
A Red Light and a Missing Receiver
Traffic camera footage established that the light at Broadway Boulevard and Westport Road had been red for 16 seconds before the collision. Pumper 19 carried an Opticom emergency transponder meant to trigger green lights for approaching emergency vehicles, but Kansas City had never installed a matching receiver at that intersection, KCTV5 reported. The 45,000-pound apparatus plowed through the intersection, destroying a Westport building in the process.
Three months before the fatal crash, an internal KCFD email titled “Horrendous Driving” warned supervisors that Biscari drove an ambulance 70 mph unnecessarily, took hard turns that threw EMTs off bench seats, and sent a vehicle airborne on 27th Street, per the same KCTV5 report. Biscari's attorney has stated the firefighter was never made aware of that internal complaint. After the fatal crash, KCFD overhauled its driving guidelines, now requiring all emergency vehicle operators to come to a complete stop at red lights and blind intersections before proceeding, whereas prior guidelines had allowed drivers discretion at red signals.
Criminal Case and a $32 Million Civil Judgment
Biscari was charged with three counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and entered an Alford plea in February 2023, a plea that lets a defendant maintain innocence while acknowledging prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office. He was sentenced to three years of probation, 40 hours of community service and a ban on possessing firearms, avoiding a trial where he had faced up to 12 years in prison. Kansas City had suspended Biscari without pay pending the criminal case.
Separately, in October 2022, retired Circuit Judge J. Miles Sweeney issued a $32 million civil arbitration award against Biscari after finding he made false statements to police investigators, claiming he was traveling 30 mph and had attempted to brake before the crash. Victims' families had agreed to dismiss Biscari from their civil lawsuits in exchange for that binding arbitration process, KCUR reported.
Arbitrator Found City's Investigation Fatally Flawed
Local 42 challenged the city's suspension of Biscari, arguing it violated the collective bargaining agreement and his due-process rights. Shurin ultimately ruled in Biscari's favor, ordering a three-day suspension rather than termination. The city did not object to evidence presented regarding at least five previously disciplined KCFD employees during arbitration.
Shurin's award, issued after a hearing in early 2024, ordered Kansas City to pay Biscari back wages and benefits and imposed a three-day suspension without pay while clearing his personnel record, according to Firehouse. The city appealed the award soon afterward. The award included a three-day suspension without pay.
City Expresses Disappointment, Says It Will Comply
Kansas City said it was disappointed with the court's outcome and is reviewing the decision to determine its next steps, but the city also said it will comply with its legal obligations and has no further comment on personnel specifics at this time. The city expressed condolences to the families of San Nicolas, Elwood and Knight. Mayor Quinton Lucas has not responded to FOX4's request for comment, and Local 42 has also not responded to the outlet's inquiry.
The reinstatement follows earlier political resistance to compensating Biscari: in May 2025, a Kansas City Council committee rejected a proposed $915,000 settlement that would have resolved his union grievance and an associated workers' compensation claim tied to injuries from the crash, according to Firehouse. Kansas City ultimately paid more than $3.2 million to settle civil lawsuits with the families of San Nicolas, Elwood and Knight, as well as the owner of the destroyed Westport building, per Firefighter Close Calls.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Fleet Crashes
City records obtained under the Missouri Sunshine Law showed that between late 2019 and early 2023, KCFD vehicles were involved in 18 crashes that led to $6.5 million in total legal claim payouts by the city, with claims tied to the Westport crash accounting for more than two-thirds of that total, the outlet's reporting found. The case now stands as a rare instance where a fatal crash resulted in a criminal plea and a massive civil judgment against the driver, yet ended with his job restored under a labor arbitration process the courts found the city had no legal grounds to overturn.
