Utility Company Settles Claim Over Motor Vehicle Collision
After waging a lengthy legal fight against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG&E”), a San Jose,. California mother whose daughter was killed in a collision with a utility company driver has accepted $5 million to resolve her lawsuit.
Lisa Bernstein’s daughter was struck by a diabetic PGE driver who had lost consiousness after not testing his blood sugar that day. Ms. Bernstein was so incensed by the company’s response that she hauled the remains of her daughter truck up to PG&E headquarters in San Francisco.
The $5 million judgment is at least $3 million higher than the utility's original offer. Ms. Bernstein has claimed that her first priority was to hold PG&E accountable for the 2006 crash that killed 20-year-old Mary Bernstein and her sweetheart Robert Conway so a similar tragedy never happens to another family. The driver of the PG&E truck, diabetic John Mayfield, has pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter for the crash on the 11th Street off-ramp to Interstate 280 in San Jose.
What really incensed Ms. Bernstein and her attorney’s was the fact that PG&E had refused to support legislation to make companies more accountable for errant drivers, This non-support of the reference piece of legislation almost let Ms. Bernstein to go to trial even if it meant she was awarded only $1.
