An example of a big rig, not the one from the story.
A Northern California man whose wife and two sons were among six people in a van killed in a fiery freeway crash in Gorman is suing the owners of a car and big rig involved in the collision.
Wei Xiong Li, 45, of Daly City brought the wrongful death suit in Los Angeles Superior against Pomona-based Lexmar Distribution Inc. as well as Miles Bullock and Kimberly Torrao, the co-owners of a 2014 BMW that allegedly set off the accident.
Bullock and Torrao could not be reached for comment.
Lexmar attorney Robert Bergsten said he had not yet seen a copy of the Li lawsuit filed Monday, but he called the collision “tragic.” The big rig driver was completely alert and never saw the van because it did not have its emergency lights flashing, he said.
Bergsten said the driver still works for Lexmar “in some capacity.”
The crash occurred about 3:25 a.m. June 28 on the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway. Li and his family were traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles along with 34-year-old Aaron Ng of San Francisco and his wife and two children in a rented van, according to the lawsuit.
Ng was driving the van when the BMW, driven at a high rate of speed by Bullock, hit the back of the victims’ vehicle and spun it around until it stopped near the edge of the freeway, the suit alleges.
The Lexmar truck, without braking, then smashed into the van, which burst into flames and went down an embankment, according to the complaint.
“(Li) and Ng attempted to extricate their families from the burning van, suffering serious burns themselves, but the vehicle was engulfed by flames,” the suit says. “Their families screamed as they burned to death.”
Li’s wife, Connie Yan Lu Wu, and sons, Jaden and Lucas Li, all died in the crash, the suit states.
Li “forever will be deprived of his beloved wife and sons” as a result of the negligence and “conscious disregard” by the defendants for the rights of others, according to the lawsuit.
Ng and his mother-in-law, Xue Fang Chen, filed a similar lawsuit against the same defendants in Los Angeles Superior Court on Oct. 31. Ng’s wife, Flora Kuang, and children, Sky and Venus Ng, also died in the accident.
Lexmar filed a cross-complaint against Bullock and Torrao that seeks compensation from them in the event the company is found liable in the Ng-Chen suit.
–City News Service
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