Truck Driver In Deadly 2014 Multi-Vehicle Crash On Hwy 17 Sentenced To Probation, Community Service
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- A 25-year-old man was sentenced Friday to three years of probation and 400 hours of community service after losing control of a big rig last year on state Highway 17 south of Los Gatos in a crash that killed one and involved nearly a dozen cars.
Superior Court Judge Cynthia Lie sentenced Raviderpal Singh in San Jose after he pleaded no contest in October to a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge in the July 10, 2014 collision, which killed 25-year-old Daniel McGuire of Santa Cruz.
Singh was driving a big rig on northbound Highway 17 near Bear Creek Road when he lost control of the vehicle, which jackknifed and led to a collision with 10 cars, according to the California Highway Patrol.
McGuire was partially ejected from his vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, CHP officials said.
Seven other people injured in the collision were transported to a hospital and later released, according to the CHP.
McGuire's parents, who were at Friday's hearing with a handful of other family members and friends, asked the court to sentence Singh to community service that involves advocacy for truck safety regulations.
Gail-Jean McGuire, Daniel's mother, addressed the court Friday in a prepared speech and wore a button with her son's picture pinned to her blazer.
She spoke about how her son was college-educated and planning on proposing to his girlfriend, who was also at Friday's hearing.
She found it "unbelievable that they (the trucking company) hired a driver who had never driven this truck before," Gail-Jean McGuire said.
Gail-Jean McGuire also said she would've changed positions with Daniel that day in a heartbeat.
Remarks were also made in court by Daniel's uncle, friends and another victim who was in a car involved in the collision.
"My actions took someone's life and I'm really sorry for it," Singh said in court facing Daniel's family and friends.
Doug McGuire, Daniel's father, said the sentence was fair and jail time wouldn't have benefited society.
"He's going to be doing community service hopefully in a capacity that will allow him to try to change the trucking laws so that our roads are more safe," Doug McGuire said.
Singh's attorney Ravi Johal said the accident was a "horrific event" and his client has been forthcoming and honest in resolving the matter.
Daniel McGuire's family and friends embraced each other and were in tears outside the courtroom after the sentencing.
Singh had faced a maximum sentence of a year in jail, but the family's requests and facts in the case were taken into consideration, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Alisa Esser-Kahn said.
"This is not a person who got on the road that day and intended to take another life," Esser-Kahn said.
Robert Allard, an attorney for the McGuire family, filed an amended civil lawsuit in court Tuesday that seeks punitive damages in the collision against Singh and Saini Bros Trucking Inc., the company that hired him, according to Allard's spokesman Ed Vasquez.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants had violated laws regarding commercial vehicles on the highway and that the truck had deficient brakes falsely reported on a mechanic's inspection report a day before the collision, according to Vasquez.
Also named as defendants on the suit are Don Chapin Co. Inc., Assured Aggregates Company, and Charles F. Gagliasso Trucking, which had all hired Saini Bros Trucking Inc. to transport soil from Santa Cruz to the Bay Area, Vasquez said.
A wrongful death lawsuit was also filed last year in Monterey County Superior Court against the same defendants because Don Chapin and Aggregates Company are based in Salinas, Vasquez said.
The wrongful death suit claims the big rig was hauling two trailers loaded with 24 tons of topsoil and Singh had only three months of experience as a truck driver, according to Vasquez.
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