After three years of waiting for someone to be held accountable
for her son’s tragic death, Jacqui Merriman feels as empty handed
as the day she lost her only child.
After three years of waiting for someone to be held accountable for her son’s tragic death, Jacqui Merriman feels as empty handed as the day she lost her only child.
The District Attorney’s Office dismissed a case against Louis Estrada Vasquez – a tow truck driver who lost control of his truck and slammed into a Caltrans work site where Sean Merriman, 32, was patching potholes. Sean Merriman died instantly and Vasquez found himself facing vehicular manslaughter charges and up to a year in county jail.
“It upsets me every time I think about it,” Jacqui Merriman said of the dismissed charges. “I’m not saying that man deliberately caused the accident that took my son’s life. But there was an accident and my son is dead. No one has been held accountable.”
Prosecutors concluded that the evidence against Vasquez was unlikely to support a unanimous jury verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, according to Amy Cornell, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office. Not only could prosecutors not prove Vasquez’s guilt, an investigation of the crash scene revealed that Caltrans was not following accepted protocol, Cornell said.
About 1:30 p.m. April 4, 2006, Sean Merriman was filling potholes in the third lane of U.S. 101 near Hellyer Avenue in San Jose as part of a three-man, two-vehicle Caltrans crew, according to court documents. As per standard practice, the crew parked a “shadow” truck intended to protect workers from oncoming vehicles behind a dump truck carrying asphalt for the potholes.
Vasquez skidded on the rain-soaked road when he couldn’t merge out of the third lane because of other cars in the way and slammed into the work site, pinning Merriman between the two Caltrans vehicles, according to court documents.
However, an investigation of the crash site revealed that the distance between the two service vehicles was unsafe – only 33 feet apart compared to the 160 feet called for in the Caltrans manual, Cornell said. The manual also called for a second “shadow” or following vehicle, she said. Caltrans also did not close the adjacent traffic lane, which would have given approaching vehicles an additional escape route, or coordinate with the California Highway Patrol to conduct an appropriate traffic break, she said.
Additionally, a CHP accident reconstruction expert found the speed at which Vasquez was traveling – 58 miles per hour – not unsafe in and of itself, Cornell said.
Although Vasquez’s blood, which was drawn five hours after the crash by his then-employer, Ponzini’s Community Garage in Morgan Hill, did show traces of methamphetamine, officers at the scene did not notice signs of impairment and, therefore, did not request a blood sample, Cornell said.
The District Attorney’s Office is not filing charges against Caltrans. However, Cal/OSHA – a state agency that protects workers from on-the-job safety hazards – conducted its own investigation and issued two citations against Caltrans, one in the amount of $560 and another for $5,000 – down from an $18,000 original fine, said Cynthia Kirk, a Cal/OSHA communications officer.
The penalties were assessed for the crew not following procedure, said Lauren Wonder, a Caltrans spokeswoman. However, Sean Merriman’s death did not prompt any particular changes in the agency’s practices because the agency does have the proper procedures outlined for its employees and conducts regular safety meetings with crews, Wonder said.
“All of Caltrans feels the loss,” she said. “It was quite a tragic situation.”
As a result of this case, prosecutors are implementing protocol that would open the lines of communication with victims’ families, Cornell said.
“They could have handled their end a lot better,” Jacqui Merriman said, frustrated by a lack of communication on the prosecution’s part and what she thought was an exorbitant amount of time between her son’s death and the case’s conclusion.
Although she and her husband recently settled a civil lawsuit for an undisclosed amount alleging negligence on Vasquez’s and Ponzini’s part, “the civil suit was restitution, not justice,” she said, sitting in a memorial garden for her son that she had just put the finishing touches on, her voice dissolving into tears. “We did not keep that money.”
The Merrimans used the settlement to create an endowment in their son’s name that will provide scholarships for seniors at Mount Madonna Continuation High School – Sean Merriman’s alma mater – and provide funds for various local charities. Tinkling with the sound of wind chimes, the peaceful garden overflowed with memories of her son: a live oak the family planted the year Sean Merriman was born, his artwork, rocks he brought back as gifts for his mother from his travels and a large orange cone from Caltrans.
Convinced that Caltrans did everything possible to follow protocol, Jacqui Merriman said she and her husband did not plan to file a lawsuit against the agency.
“Life goes on,” she said, fingering the orange rubber bracelet around her wrist that read “Slow for the Cone.” The same saying was on the bumper stickers on her car, which framed a license plate reading “Love you Sean,” the “love” abbreviated by a heart symbol.
“You have to pick your battles and I’m all battled out,” she said.
Although prosecutors believe the decision to dismiss the charges was appropriate, Cornell acknowledged that the length of time that elapsed before the decision was made and communicated to the Merrimans was too long. Newly implemented protocol requires more frequent conferences between deputy district attorneys and their supervisors and more frequent contact with victims’ families.
Although the new protocol was not due to a specific error on the Office of the District Attorney’s part, “we believe we could have better served the victim’s family by keeping them more informed,” Cornell said. “We regret that what occurred resulted in the victim’s family being unhappy and discouraged, and we are never satisfied with that result.”
