Appellate court upholds ruling to give families new trial in deadly Greyhound crash

An appellate court on Tuesday upheld a Superior Court judge’s ruling that granted a new trial in the Greyhound bus crash that killed six people, including three young women inside an overturned sports utility vehicle on Highway 99 in Fresno eight years ago.

In June 2015, Judge Donald Black threw out a jury verdict that found Greyhound was not at fault. Instead, Black granted a new trial for the families of the three dead women in the SUV who had sued Greyhound for negligence.

In his ruling, Black said the Greyhound bus driver, James Jewett, was negligent for driving in excess of the posted speed limit of 65 mph immediately before impact with the overturned SUV. Black also ruled that Jewett was negligent for not wearing his glasses immediately before impact. Jewett was required to wear glasses to drive the Greyhound bus, court records say.

In addition, Black said Jewett was negligent for driving in the fast lane when the bus hit the SUV.

“The court finds the evidence does not support the verdict,” Black said back then.

Three years after Greyhound appealed the ruling, the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno sided with Black, saying the judge had the ample authority, supported by evidence from the trial, to grant a new trial.

In its ruling the appellate court said it was in Black’s discretion to find that Jewett was speeding and not wearing his glasses at the time of the collision.

“Accepting the bus was traveling more than 65 miles per hour, the record contains evidence supporting the trial court’s conclusion that Greyhound breached its duty of care because Jewett improperly entered and drove in the fast lane of the freeway,” says the unanimous opinion by appellate Justices Herbert Levy, Jennifer Detjen and Donald Franson Jr.

The July 22, 2010, crash killed the occupants of the SUV – Sylvia Garay, 18, of Dinuba, and Vanessa Gonzalez, 19, and Stephanie Cordoba, 20, both of Fresno. Also killed were Jewett and bus passengers Epifania Solis, 60, of Madera, and Tomas Ponce, 79, of Winton.

In the 2015 trial, both sides agreed that Jewett, a 32-year veteran of Greyhound with a clean driving record, was making a run from Los Angeles to Sacramento when he arrived in Fresno at 1:45 a.m. About the same time, Garay, Cordoba and Gonzalez were wrapping up a night celebrating a friend’s birthday. The crash happened shortly after 2 a.m. on the northbound fast lane of Highway 99 at the McKinley Avenue offramp.

After the Greyhound struck the overturned SUV, the bus continued on the highway for more than 400 feet before going down an embankment and plowing into a eucalyptus tree, court records say.

A CHP investigation blamed the deadly crash on Garay, saying she was drunk when she overturned the SUV near the McKinley offramp. The CHP also contended Jewett was wearing his glasses and did nothing wrong because he couldn’t see the dark undercarriage of the SUV.

Despite the CHP finding, Greyhound spent more than $3 million to settle with the two dozen injured bus passengers and with the families of Solis and Ponce. But the bus company never made an offer to the families of the three young women. So the families sued Greyhound.

Lawyers for the families – Jason Helsel, Mark Vogt, Adam Benkoski, John Fowler and Stuart Chandler – contended Jewett caused the deadly crash. The crux of their case was that dozens of cars had missed the overturned SUV, so why couldn’t a professional bus driver do the same?

If Jewett had been wearing his glasses and paying attention, he would have seen that several motorists had pulled over and turned on their emergency flashers in an effort to help the three young women after the SUV overturned, the lawyers argued.

The families’ lawyers tried to discredit the CHP report, saying it was filled with speculation and lacked sufficient evidence to prove Garay was driving. They pointed out that several witnesses said Gonzalez, who had no alcohol in her body, was driving that night.

A video from Garay’s cellphone that was recovered at the crash scene also showed Gonzalez was driving hours before the crash, the families’ lawyers said.

Greyhound attorneys relied on the CHP investigation to win the case.

Black said in the 2015 ruling: “There is no question the (bus) driver was confronted with an unexpected object in the roadway.”

Jewett, however, “failed to take any action to avoid the SUV,” Black wrote. “It thus cannot be said that he took a course of action that in hindsight was not the better choice.”

The appellate ruling only affects the families of Garay and Gonzalez, Chandler said on Tuesday. That’s because Cordoba’s family accepted an offer from Greyhound to dismiss its appeal. In exchange, Cordoba’s family will not be responsible for paying any of Greyhound’s court costs, which is more than $500,000.

“We are very pleased that the appellate court upheld Judge Black’s ruling,” Chandler said. “We’re finally going to get justice for the victims who were killed or injured by Greyhound’s negligence.”