Gavin Hinckley and his fiancée were working on their wedding weeks away when a Riverside County Sheriff’s patrol vehicle came toward them at 100 mph, ran through a red light and collided with the driver’s side of their car.
Hinckley, 21, died at the scene of the crash in September, and his fiancee, Madeline Fox, 20, suffered “catastrophic” injuries, including permanent brain trauma, according to a lawsuit filed this week by their families against Riverside County.
The lawsuit alleges that the “gross negligence” and reckless conduct of Deputy Glynn Wilburn, who was driving the patrol car, caused Hinckley’s death and caused Fox serious physical and mental harm, grief and emotional distress.
Hinckley was driving the couple’s Tesla and was turning left at the intersection of Cherry Valley Boulevard and Roberts Street in the city of Calimesa.
Wilburn, a defendant in the lawsuit, had begun braking just before the collision, but he was still driving at 98 mph, with the car slowing to about 72 mph within seconds, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit, filed May 7 in Riverside County Superior Court, also names Riverside County, Southern California Edison, American Medical Response of Southern California and the cities of Calimesa and Beaumont as defendants.
Spencer Lucas, an attorney representing the families at the firm Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, said the deputies were responding to a dispatch, but regardless, law enforcement should act with the appropriate level of safety and care.
Lucas said in an interview with the Times, “There’s no excuse for a cowboy cop to run through a red light on a two-lane road. …He was driving well over the proper limit.” “This tragic accident was completely preventable.”
The lawsuit also says Southern California Edison was at fault because its utility equipment blocked visibility, preventing Hinckley from seeing the rapidly approaching law enforcement vehicle.
And it is alleged that paramedics who responded to the crash with the private ambulance company American Medical Response treated the deputy and transported him before Fox and Hinckley could see the more serious injuries.
“The deputy, who suffered only minor injuries, was taken away by ambulance while (Hinkley and Fox) were left inside the wreckage,” Lucas said.
As a result of the brain injury, Fox “had to start over” and learn to swallow, feed herself, stand and walk and talk, Lucas said. His mother has been appointed his guardian.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment. Lt. Deirdre Vickers said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The reckless conduct allegations in the lawsuit rely largely on a recently released California Highway Patrol report on the crash, which analyzed the crash scene and vehicles in detail.
Wilburn had “the Ford’s siren and forward red and blue emergency lights activated” and five seconds before the crash, he was “driving at 100 mph in the westbound lanes of Cherry Valley Boulevard, without applying any force to the accelerator or brake pedals.”
It says Wilburn “recognized the Tesla as a threat” about a second before the crash, at which point he turned his steering wheel to the right and applied the brakes.
The photos of the Tesla included in the report show the car’s left door completely destroyed.
The number of collisions in which a law enforcement vehicle was found at fault has increased in L.A. County in recent years, according to data maintained by the California Highway Patrol. A Times analysis published in October found that the city of L.A. had spent at least $90 million on negotiated payments or verdicts in more than 1,200 lawsuits related to impaired police driving over the past decade.
