Man dies in crash between two pickup trucks. $5M. Stanislaus County.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  On March 1, 2017, decedent Paul Perkins, age 64, his wife, plaintiff Rosemary Perkins, age 64 , and their neighbor and friend, Maria Consuelo Rosas-Calderon, age 41, were traveling southbound on Terminal Avenue between Riverbank and Modesto at approximately 6:30 p.m. Terminal Avenue is a two-lane road without any adjacent improvements, lights or fog lines identifying the edge of the roadway. The road was painted with yellow skip-stripes identifying the northbound and southbound lanes. Plaintiffs were traveling in a half-ton, 2002 GMC pick-up truck at an estimated speed of 55-56 miles per hour. The posted speed limit was 55 miles per hour.

  At the same time, defendant Waterworks Industries employee William Anthony Borges, Jr., was traveling northbound in a 2011 Ford F-350 pick-up truck. Defendants admitted that Borges was operating a company-owned vehicle within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the incident. The incident occurred when the left front of the Waterworks pick-up truck struck the left front of the plaintiffs' pick-up truck at a closing speed estimated at 125 miles per hour.

  Plaintiff Rosemary Perkins' decedent, Paul Perkins, was killed instantly. Defendant Waterworks' employee, William Anthony Borges, Jr., sustained a scratch to his finger while plaintiff Rosemary Perkins, in addition to losing her husband, suffered a broken jaw and a fracture of her left tibial plateau. Right rear passenger, Maria Ross-Calderon, suffered from a fractured sternum. Data retrieved from the EDR contained within defendant Waterworks' Ford pick-up truck revealed that defendant Borges' speed at the moment of impact was 70 miles per hour. The data also revealed that there were no steering movements to avoid the impact nor was there any braking during the 5 seconds before impact.

  Both experts agreed that the impact occurred in the southbound lane. 

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  Plaintiffs argued that defendants' vehicle crossed over the center line and into the southbound lane causing the incident.

  Plaintiffs' expert, Jeffrey Bonsall with Momentum Engineering, testified that based upon gouge marks in the roadway, the physical evidence to both vehicles, and the data from the EDR from defendants' truck, the impact occurred as much as three feet into plaintiffs' southbound lane.

• Defendant's Contentions:

  Defendants contested liability and argued that plaintiff's decedent, Paul Perkins, contributed to the cause of the incident by traveling either on or over the skip-striped middle line of the roadway.

  Defendants' expert, Rajeev Kelkar, PhD, testified that the impact occurred either on the center line or approximately 6-12 inches inside the southbound lane.

  Defendants, through their experts, contended that plaintiffs created a condition of imminent peril which excused defendants' conduct. An independent witness who was traveling behind the Perkins vehicle testified that the Perkins vehicle was traveling southbound and either crossed the center line into the northbound lane or was near the center line during the moments before the impact. Based upon this testimony, defendants' expert Rajeev Kelkar, PhD, testified that defendant Borges was presented with a condition of imminent peril when he observed the headlights of plaintiffs' vehicle traveling in the northbound lane and across the center line, which caused Borges to move his vehicle to the east side of the road, causing him to leave the roadway surface. When he attempted to get back onto the roadway surface, he temporarily lost control of his vehicle causing him to travel across the northbound lane and into the southbound lane.