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The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged a Florida truck driver last week with three felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with the crash in Livermore that killed three teenagers days before Christmas.
Prosecutors allege that Ivenet Frederic’s decisions to make an illegal left-hand turn and then park his semi-truck with trailer in a business driveway while perpendicularly blocking two lanes of Las Positas Road on the night of Dec. 21 were criminally negligent and made him at fault for the deadly collision.
Rahul Brar, 18; Shej Kumar, 16; and Ian Ericksen, 16 — all Livermore residents — were killed after the Mercedes-Benz they were riding in crashed into the passenger side of the trailer. Ericksen was a junior at Livermore High School, Kumar attended Del Valle Continuation High School, and Brar was an alumnus of Vineyard Alternative High School.
The DA’s office filed formal charges in the case on April 13 after reviewing the police investigation that was completed in late February.
Frederic, 31, of Orlando, Fla., is scheduled for his first court appearance next month to enter a plea to the charges. It is not immediately clear whether he is represented by an attorney.
The violent crash, killing three local teenagers during the winter holiday season, rocked the Livermore community.
According to Livermore police, Frederic was driving a white 2015 Kenworth T680 pulling a 53-foot CIMC container chassis trailer westbound on Las Positas Road when he approached a no-left-turn/no-U-turn sign at the intersection for the business driveway at 5699 Las Positas Road just before 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 21.
The trucker made the left turn in disregard of the sign and pulled the semi-truck partly into the driveway, leaving the trailer perpendicular in the roadway blocking the first and second eastbound lanes while he got out of the cab to tell the business to open its gate, Livermore police Officer Keith Pini wrote in a probable cause statement.
In that time, a white Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicle carrying the three teenagers was traveling eastbound in the No. 2 lane at an unknown speed toward the big-rig, according to Pini.
Brar’s family said on social media that the 18-year-old was driving his cousin Kumar and friend Ericksen home after picking up the pair after their shift ended at a local Baskin-Robbins ice cream store that night.
The car struck the passenger side of the trailer, a violent crash that “caused the top of the Mercedes to be sheared off and peeled back to the trunk lid,” according to Pini. Two of the teens died at the scene while the third succumbed to his injuries at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley just before 11:30 p.m.
Frederic remained at the scene, was interviewed by police and found not to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, so he was released from the scene, according to Pini. But subsequent investigation led police to recommend vehicular manslaughter charges in the case.
“Frederic committed two infractions by failure to obey a sign and was negligent in blocking the roadway, causing the death of three victims by his actions,” the officer wrote.
Police forwarded the case in late February to the DA’s office, which in turn filed a criminal complaint on April 13 charging Frederic with three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
The Florida man is scheduled to appear in Alameda County Superior Court on May 21 for arraignment and entry of plea, according to the DA’s office.
