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The scene in Pleasanton on Christmas night 2019 sent shockwaves through the region as three Dublin teenagers were killed and two others seriously injured in a solo-vehicle crash along a narrow stretch of Foothill Road.
Now, more than a year after the violent crash that gripped the Tri-Valley as a holiday tragedy, a series of lawsuits and claims also paint the picture of a preventable accident with plenty of culpability to go around, targeting the city, county and state governments, family members of the teen driver who died and even one of the surviving passengers.
Dublin High School student Javier Ramirez Jr., 16, was behind the wheel of the vehicle carrying four teenage passengers when it crashed into a pole and then a large tree, ripping the car in half just north of the entrance to The Club at Castlewood on Dec. 25, 2019, according to court records.
Ramirez died at the scene, as did twins Mark and Michael Urista — also 16-year-old Dublin High students. Jared Reynoso, a cousin of the Urista brothers, and Dublin High student Samantha Vargas Arceo survived but sustained serious injuries.
The school and Dublin community at-large mourned together in what seemed like a very public grieving process in the days after the horrific wreck. The legal fallout may well play out in a very public fashion, too.
The Uristas’ parents, along with Reynoso’s family, filed a civil complaint in Alameda County Superior Court in November seeking damages for wrongful death and personal injury against Ramirez’s family, the dead teen’s estate and the owner of the car. They’ve also named Arceo as a defendant, for failing to intervene and stop “a dangerous and incompetent driver.”
Meanwhile, in a separate lawsuit filed in the county court this January, Arceo — via her guardian — has also sued the owner of the car, but their lawsuit further seeks judgment against the city of Pleasanton, Alameda County and Caltrans, alleging unsafe road conditions.
The Urista and Reynoso families also pursued individual claims with the city of Pleasanton over the road conditions, but their claims — like Arceo’s own claim — were denied in August based on the fact the stretch of Foothill Road is in unincorporated Pleasanton and thus in the county’s jurisdiction, not the city’s, according to city attorney Dan Sodergren.
A claim typically precedes a lawsuit against a public agency, pending the agency’s rejection, but thus far only Arceo has sued the city of Pleasanton. The Alameda County Counsel’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on whether claims were filed with its office over the crash.
Attorney Bill Berg of the Alameda-based Berg Injury Lawyers, which represents the twins’ parents Andrew Urista and Ana Reynoso and Jared Reynoso and his guardian Angelica Reynoso, declined to comment when contacted Monday because the litigation is still pending.
Attorneys with the Bond Legal Group out of Irvine, which represents Arceo and her family, had not responded to a request for comment as of Tuesday afternoon.
The results of the California Highway Patrol’s investigation into the triple-fatal crash have not been shared publicly to date. It is also unclear whether any adult faced potential criminal charges related to allowing the potentially unlicensed Ramirez to drive the car that fateful Christmas night with passengers, which is not legal until the age of 18.
The situation unfolded just before 10 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2019 with a vehicle carrying all five occupants traveling southbound on a narrow, windy stretch of Foothill Road several blocks south of the Pleasanton city limits.
The CHP reported at the time that, according to witness and on-scene evidence, the vehicle crossed into the northbound lane of Foothill Road for unknown reasons and then struck a power pole and a large tree on the side of the road, feet away from Castlewood’s Valley (Golf) Course.
The force of the crash tore the vehicle in half, ejected two of the occupants and trapped three others inside the vehicle, according to the CHP. The Urista brothers and Ramirez were pronounced dead at the scene. Reynoso and Arceo were both hospitalized with serious injuries.
In a claim filed with the city, Arceo’s lawyers revealed the now-17-year-old broke her legs, ankles, hip, nose and vertebrae in the crash.
Their subsequent lawsuit, on the girl’s behalf via her guardian, Hilda Arceo Garcia, places blame on the city, county and state for the “dangerous and defective condition” of Foothill Road contributing to the crash.
Lack of nighttime lighting, poor roadway design, insufficient safety signage, unreasonable speed limit, no shoulder, and the location of utility poles and trees were among the reasons they argue that the stretch of Foothill Road was unsafe.
The suit also named the owner of the car, Marco Antonio Lopez, as a defendant, for entrusting his vehicle to Ramirez and thereby allowing it to be driven “in such a careless, negligent and reckless manner as to cause it to leave the roadway, strike objects and split in half.”
The complaint seeks unspecified monetary damages as well as a jury trial.
It’s unclear whether Lopez is represented by an attorney.
Also unspecified is the relationship between Lopez and the Arceo family because the Reynoso/Urista lawsuit labels Lopez, Arceo Garcia and young Arceo as the defendants responsible for entrusting the car to Ramirez.
The Reynoso/Urista attorneys allege that Ramirez did not have a driver’s license and was known to drive recklessly at high speeds.
To that end, they argue the girl should have confronted Ramirez in the car as he allegedly drove wildly — and the result of not doing so was catastrophic. They see Arceo’s actions as “malicious and oppressive” and ask the court “to make an example of her … to deter her and others from engaging in such conduct in the future.”
The complaint also lists Javier Ramirez Sr. and Zuleika Ramirez as defendants, along with the estate of the late Javier Ramirez Jr. It is not clear whether they have attorneys.
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful death, personal injury and property damage. The extent of Reynoso’s physical injuries was not specified in the complaint.
Sodergren told the Weekly that the city had not been served with any lawsuit related to the triple-fatal crash as of Monday afternoon.
He said the city denied all of the claims filed in this case because “the segment of the street where the accident occurred is located within the county of Alameda. Because the city did not design, control, own or maintain the roadway at issue, the claims have been denied.”
The claims, which were denied on Aug. 5, were listed among 12 separate cases of litigation listed on the Pleasanton City Council’s closed-session agenda for Tuesday evening. The reason for the discussion was not specified.
This was a tragic incident. Young lives lost over careless mistakes. Which ultimately caused loss of life, the ultimate price. With that said, stop the lawsuits. All it is doing is adding additional grief and complicating future life. Cruel and disgusting going after money. It will not erase that night.
May the lost souls RIP and the surviving keep pushing through.