Claim: Drunken driver using autopilot crashed employer’s truck

A commercial driver crashed a company vehicle while intoxicated and using the car’s autopilot function, killing a man, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Orange County that claims negligence by the driver and his employer, a construction company.

“The questions at this point from our standpoint are: Is this something that his company knew about? What was their responsibility in providing the vehicle? Were they aware of this propensity toward risky behavior?” Olivier A. Taillieu of BD & J PC, who represents the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview.

The driver “was not engaged in company business on that day and was not acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the incident,” a media representative for the defendant, Balfour Beatty Construction Company, said in an email Tuesday.

Taillieu and Joseph G. Younes of BD & J in Beverly Hills filed the complaint on behalf of family members of the victim, Alfred Garcia.

“We’re looking forward to the discovery process and giving this family somewhat of a bit of justice in the end,” Taillieu said in the phone call.

Before the accident, driver Charles Randall Brown had spent the day playing golf, drinking and using cocaine, according to the complaint. James Garcia et al. v. Balfour Beatty Construction Company Inc. et al., (O.C. Sup. Ct., filed Oct. 3, 2023).

Brown then attempted to drive home in a Dodge RAM truck owned by his employer, Balfour Beatty Construction Company Inc. “The evidence collected by the police department indicated that he put his truck on ‘autopilot’ mode and, according to him, ‘never saw the Lexus’ until it was 3 or 4 car lengths ahead of him,” the complaint read.

Black box data from the vehicle indicated that Brown did not brake as he approached the car ahead of him, the complaint said.

The plaintiffs seek general damages, funeral expenses, medical and related expenses, economic damages with interest, punitive damages, cost of suit and attorney fees.

Other lawsuits involving autopilot functions have cropped up recently. The nation’s first autopilot death trial is underway in Riverside County Superior Court. Molander v. Tesla Inc., RIC2002469 (Riverside Super. Ct., filed June 26, 2020).

Plaintiffs in that case allege that a flaw in Tesla’s autopilot system caused a driver to fatally crash, while Tesla has said the driver had been drinking and steered the car off the freeway.

Taillieu pointed to unclear marketing about how autopilot programs function.

“Our position is that it’s very much the driver’s responsibility to use these features responsibly,” he said. “But if you look at some of the marketing, some of the advertising, I do think it gives people a false sense of security as to what the car can and can’t do.”

“In a case like this, where I think the driver’s behavior is so egregious, so clearly outside the bounds of decency and just such a violation of the standard of care, obviously we’re going to focus on that,” he continued.