A DoorDash driver has admitted he was using his cell phone when the vehicle he was driving struck a family of three in the Pico-Robertson district of Los Angeles, according to new court papers filed by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint was filed Aug. 10 on behalf of the wife and son of Bing Wang, a 51-year-old Chinese national who was hit and killed in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood on June 7.
The accident occurred in the 6100 block of West Pico Boulevard after a car went over a curb and hit the family members, who had been sightseeing, as they stood on a sidewalk. Wang died of his injuries and his wife, Xiaomei, suffered major injuries and had her left leg amputated. Their son, Wenxuan, suffered moderate injuries.
In court papers filed Monday with Judge Steven Ellis, the family’s lawyers present 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 driver Vladimir 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 previous court papers, DoorDash attorneys cite multiple defenses, including that the plaintiffs engaged in “misrepresentation and concealment” and “wrongful or negligent conduct” and that DoorDash acted in good faith.
The Wang family members should “take nothing by way of their complaint” and the court should “enter judgment in DoorDash’s favor,” according to the company’s attorneys’ court papers.