$13.7 Million Verdict for Families of Three San Jose Workers Killed in Highway 152 Fog Collision
Won by Cerri, Boskovich & Allard.
An Alameda County jury returned a $13.7 million verdict for the families of three San Jose workers whose Honda was struck head-on by a commercial truck after two other big rigs set off a chain-reaction crash inside a dense tule fog bank on State Route 152 in November 2012.
What happened
On the morning of November 27, 2012, Quoc Thang Dang, 49, his sister Thuy Trang Dang, 48, and their friend Thanh Nguyen, 54, all of San Jose, were driving east on State Route 152 near Road 16 in the Central Valley, heading to work in Dinuba. Heavy tule fog had reduced visibility in the area to near zero.
Jose Batres, driving a tractor-trailer for Western Milling LLC, attempted a left turn across two lanes of the freeway in those conditions. Armando Suarez Jr., hauling cotton bales for Semper Trucking Inc., entered the fog bank, slowed, but could not stop in time. His truck clipped the rear of Batres's trailer and overturned, scattering 500-pound cotton bales across the westbound lanes. Liwei Xu, driving a container truck for Well Trucking Inc., then struck the debris, lost control, and crossed the center median. His truck collided head-on with the Dang family's Honda Accord. All three passengers died at the scene.
The families filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court (Case No. RG13676150), arguing that the chain of events traced directly to Batres's decision to cross two lanes in near-zero visibility. Attorney Bradley M. Corsiglia of Corsiglia McMahon and Allard represented the Dang families; Andrew C. Schwartz of Casper, Meadows, Schwartz and Cook represented the Nguyen family. The plaintiffs built a video reconstruction of the collision sequence to show the jury exactly how each truck's movement contributed to the final impact.
The jury found Batres 75 percent at fault for initiating the chain reaction by turning across lanes without adequate visibility. Xu bore the remaining 25 percent for entering the fog bank at a speed that left him no time to stop. In 2015, the jury returned a total verdict of roughly $13.7 million: about $8.5 million to the families of Quoc Dang and Thuy Trang Dang, and about $5.2 million to the Nguyen family. The three victims left behind spouses and seven children combined.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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