WOODLAND — Christopher Gladden’s death was a horrendous tragedy — that, no one disputes.
The 24-year-old tow-truck driver from Elk Grove died on Aug. 15, 2013, 18 days after the Nissan Maxima he was hitching to his rig was rear-ended by another car on Highway 16, pinning Gladden between the Nissan and the tow truck and causing major internal injuries.
Whether Gladden’s death was purely accidental or the result of criminal negligence is now for a jury to decide as the trial for the driver who triggered the crash, Hayward resident Pacifico Sanpedro, got underway this week in Yolo Superior Court. He is charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
Sanpedro, now 73, was returning home from a lengthy, 11-hour day of gambling at Cache Creek Casino in Brooks when the collision occurred shortly after 3 a.m. on July 28, 2013.
“You’re here because it was not an accident,” Deputy District Attorney Barry Shapiro told an eight-woman, four-man jury during opening statements in the case Wednesday.
Shapiro contends Sanpedro was violating California’s basic speed law — driving too fast for the roadway conditions — when he struck the Nissan at an estimated 55 to 60 mph on eastbound Highway 16 just west of Madison, which is a 45 mph zone.
“He did not stop. He did not slow down. He did not move over” for the tow truck, whose flashing emergency lights should have been visible from a half-mile away, Shapiro said. “But for the defendant’s conduct, Christopher Gladden would be here today.”
Sanpedro’s defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Amber Poston, says the events leading to the crash were set into motion several hours earlier, when a Yolo County sheriff’s deputy pulled over the Nissan’s driver on suspicion of DUI. A CHP officer arrested the driver, leaving his three passengers behind in the car.
For reasons that remain unknown, the Nissan became inoperable, and the passengers pushed the car into a ditch before calling AAA, which dispatched Gladden’s Sacramento-based tow truck to the scene. On the darkened roadway, Sanpedro didn’t see the vehicles and may have confused the truck’s light bar for a flashing light on Highway 16 that warns of an upcoming four-way stop in Madison, Poston said.
Poston said she plans to summon an expert witness who will testify that Sanpedro’s Infiniti was traveling not the 55 to 60 mph listed in police reports, but rather 42 mph, just below the posted speed limit.
While Shapiro had noted that Sanpedro returned to the casino following the crash and “continued to gamble,” Poston said he was forced to return in order to catch a bus home, since his car was totaled in the crash. While there, Sanpedro sought medical aid for chest pains, she added.
“Mr. Sanpedro will never forget the moment of impact. He will never forget anything that followed,” Poston said, asking the jury “to evaluate this for what it is — a tragic accident, not a criminal act.”
The trial’s first day saw testimony from the first responders to the scene, including CHP Officer Michael Simpson, who said it was Sanpedro who estimated his speed to be 55 to 60 mph at the time of the crash.
Simpson said Sanpedro did not appear to have been intoxicated, drowsy or distracted at the scene, and he ultimately concluded that Sanpedro was traveling at a speed “that didn’t allow him to react” before the impact.
Under cross-examination by Poston, Simpson said he did not make an audio recording of Sanpedro’s statement, nor did he impound the wrecked vehicles for evidence or seek “black box” data from the Infiniti that could have pinpointed its speed upon impact.
Testimony continues today and into next week in Judge Daniel Maguire’s courtroom.
The incident also is the subject of a civil lawsuit pending in Yolo Superior Court. Gladden’s parents, Angela and Raymond Gladden, have levied negligence and wrongful death allegations against Sanpedro as well as Sitel Operating Corp., which operates the AAA call center that dispatched Gladden to the scene, “well out of the range of his employer’s area to conduct business,” the lawsuit says.
Filed in July 2014, the case is set for trial in January.
Angela Gladden has been a constant presence in court during the pretrial proceedings. In an interview, she said she hopes her son’s death will raise awareness of the dangers that tow-truck drivers and other emergency responders face out on the roadways.
Tow-truck drivers are among those protected in California’s “move-over” law, which requires motorists to approach with caution — and, if possible, change lanes for — stationary vehicles with flashing emergency or warning lights.
Sanpedro “needs to be accountable for what he did, in some way,” Gladden said. “Nothing is going to bring Christopher back, but I’m just hoping the system won’t fail him and justice will prevail.”
She described her son as “a great guy — he was really proud of being a tow truck driver and he loved to help people. …I feel lucky that I had him for 24 years. We didn’t waste a minute, I tell you.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene