Before the high-impact collision that ended their lives just before last Christmas, Gregory Ammen and Grace Spiridon were driving down El Camino Real in Redwood City with their twin 7-year-old daughters, Madison and Olivia Ammen. The family was returning from dinner at the girl’s grandmother’s house in Palo Alto. They were less than 10 minutes from home.
This lawsuit alleges that immediately before the collision, seventeen-year-old Cesar Salto Morales, driving a silver Mercedes Benz, and twenty-three-year-old Kyle Harrison, driving a silver BMW, stopped at a red light on El Camino Real. As alleged, Harrison and Morales signaled to each other to race while Morales’ passengers egged Harrison on, taunting him and encouraging the two to race their vehicles down El Camino Real. Morales and Harrison accelerated their cars to between 80 and 100 miles per hour down southbound down El Camino Real on a busy Friday evening in a Redwood CIty neighborhood frequented by pedestrians, children, cyclists, and many other vehicles.
Morales’ vehicle struck the Ammens at the intersection of El Camino Real with a force of the impact so strong that the Chevrolet Bolt was thrown over 100 feet. Gregory Ammen was forty-four years old, and Grace Spiridon was forty-two. Both were killed instantly in the collision, survived by their twin daughters and family.
Madison and Olivia Ammen, through their uncle, Michael Ammen, bring this wrongful death lawsuit against Morales, Harrison, and the passengers in Morales’ vehicle, who are alleged to have encouraged the drag race. The lawsuit is also brought against Morales’ parents, Susana Salto Alvarez and Arnold E. Morales, who are alleged to have negligently permitted Morales to drive the 2005 Mercedes Benz, with full knowledge of Morales’ dangerous proclivity for speeding and/or racing cars.
