The surviving two relatives of a man killed in the Pico Robertson district after a driver allegedly working for DoorDash struck all three pedestrians have settled their lawsuit against the food delivery service and the man behind the wheel of the car.
The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint was filed last Aug. 10 on behalf of the wife and son of Bing Wang, a 51-year-old Chinese national who was fatally hit while the family was walking past a Chase bank at Pico and La Cienega boulevards on June 7, 2023.
The car then continued driving and crashed into a wall of the bank.
On Tuesday, attorneys for the plaintiffs filed court papers with Judge Joseph Lipner notifying him that the case was resolved, but no terms were divulged.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
The driver, Vladimir Tishchenko, who no longer works for DoorDash, obtained his driver's license less than a month before the accident, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys' court papers.
"Simply put, Tishchenko was in a hurry to get to the restaurant to pick up the food," the plaintiffs' lawyers stated. "He was distracted by looking at the DoorDash navigation on his phone. He was incentivized to reach the restaurant as quickly as possible so he could source more delivery opportunities from DoorDash."
DoorDash had authority over Tishchenko, then 36, when he made deliveries and he was encouraged to "drive fast and reckless," the plaintiffs' attorneys further contended in their court papers.
In addition to Wang's death, his wife, Xiaomei, then 48, suffered major injuries and had her left leg amputated. Their son, Wenxuan, then 19, suffered moderate injuries.
In previous court papers, the family's lawyers filed excerpts of the deposition testimony of Xu Shi, the investigating Los Angeles Police Department officer. Shi replied affirmatively when asked by plaintiffs' attorney Robert Glassman if Tishchenko acknowledged he was on the phone and made a left turn moments before the crash.
"So he was looking at his navigation application on his phone to figure out where to go to get the food that he was picking up?" Glassman asked.
"Yes," Shi again replied, adding that he confirmed that Tishchenko was driving for DoorDash at the time by calling the company's customer service the next day. Shi said the Chinese restaurant that was Tishchenko's destination was about two blocks from the crash scene.
Four independent witnesses told Shi they saw Tishchenko speeding before he lost control and the car fishtailed, according to Shi, who further says he deduced that the driver was solely at fault because he made an unsafe left turn and was driving too fast.
In their earlier pleadings, DoorDash attorneys cited multiple defenses, including that the plaintiffs engaged in "misrepresentation and concealment" and "wrongful or negligent conduct." The lawyers also maintained that DoorDash acted in good faith.
Tishchenko was charged Jan. 29 with one count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and two counts of reckless driving with injuries, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys' court papers.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Most Popular
Comments / 0