According to the Contra Costa Times, a Santa Clara County jury awarded Drew Bianchi, a former college student, more $49 million in damages this week. The jury found that two truckers and state transportation officials were to blame for a 2007 accident on Highway 152 that left him permanently brain damaged. At the time of the accident, Bianchi was finishing up community college in Bakersfield and preparing to start at the University of California, Davis . He planned to attend medical school. He’s now in a full-time neurological treatment center in Bakersfield and will need round-the-clock medical care for the rest of his life.
The verdict is one of the largest personal injury verdicts in years for the county. Late Monday, the jury sided with plaintiff Drew Bianchi, 23-years-old, from Bakersfield. In a five week trial, Bianchi’s attorney presented evidence that reckless driving by truckers on the perilous Pacheco Pass was to blame for the accident. The collision occurred on May 3, 2007, when Bianchi was in the back seat of a Toyota Avalon with three other men heading for a camping trip. Two trucks collided near the center line of the two-lane highway, with one veering into the rear of the Toyota and directly crushing the part of the car where Bianchi was riding.
The jury divvied up blame in the verdict, assessing 60 percent of the damages on Samuel Bimbela, the trucker who allegedly first drifted across the center line and triggered the accident; and 35 percent to Gordon Trucking and its driver, Michael Demma, who was accused of recklessly driving his truck by talking on a cell phone just before crashing into Bimbela. The jury found the state 5 percent at fault. Salazar Trucking, Bimbela’s employer, settled for the $2 million, so its driver faced trial alone. Bimbela denied responsibility, saying it was Demma who crossed the center line.
The California Department of Transportation settled with Bianchi for $10 million prior to the trial to settle claims against the state based on allegations that they failed to correct safety issues on Highway 152. Bimbela’s attorneys denied liability, saying that Caltrans’ failure to improve safety conditions along Pacheco Pass’s “bloody alley” were a significant cause of the accident. The total damages in the case amounted to more than $60 million.
