Wrongful death lawsuit alleges city of Burlingame, driver, 11-year-old e-bike rider and parents at fault

Now, Ayden’s parents, Ming Fang and Ting Ting Liu, are filing suit against the various parties whose negligence they say contributed to the death of their son, in hopes of preventing other families from going through the same tragedy, they said. 

“We can create opportunities … for elected officials to make much-needed changes to protect their constituents, to protect their own families, and most importantly, opportunity for those responsible for Ayden’s death to take accountability and redemption by making a significant sacrifice in their own lives,” Ming Fang said at a press conference March 12. 

The city of Burlingame failed to create a safe pedestrian environment, the suit alleges, pointing to a Donnelly Avenue parking spot that was slated for removal before the crash to provide better visibility. The suit says the car parked in that spot, which was taken out a little over a month after Ayden’s death, obstructed Abey’s vision of the oncoming e-bike. 

“The city of Burlingame had an unsafe condition that it knew about and failed to correct,” Niall McCarthy of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, who is representing the family, said at the press conference. “Cars were allowed to park right up to the edge of a driveway, which prohibited vehicles that were exiting that driveway from seeing.” 

The city, which had already experienced two pedestrian deaths in a year prior to Ayden’s death, received multiple complaints about the dangers of that specific Donnelly Avenue driveway and failed to act, the suit alleges. 

Burlingame City Manager Lisa Goldman and Todd Master, an attorney representing the city, did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

The lawsuit also names Abey as a defendant, citing her acceleration into the sidewalk and failure to brake as a clear act of negligence. In addition, her parents, Mark Abey and Jeanne Hong, who owned the SUV, are listed as defendants for negligently entrusting their vehicle to her, as she was allegedly a new driver and on a prescription drug known to impair driving, per the suit. 

In January, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office made a decision not to bring criminal charges against Abey because it didn’t believe it could convince all 12 members of a jury that criminal negligence had occurred. 

Ming Fang said at the time he disagreed with that decision. Now, he said, civil litigation was the only path forward for accountability and change. 

“Civil litigation, unfortunately, is the only path for achieving any measure of justice, the only path to enforce those responsible to take accountability in their part of this avoidable crash and the death of our son — by holding the city of Burlingame, the driver, driver’s parents and the e-bikers’ parents accountable,” he said. 

As far as the family and legal team knows, Abey is still in possession of a driver’s license, which Fang denoted as a shock to him and a statewide problem on which he hopes the lawsuit will shine a light. 

Michael Lee, an attorney representing Abey, did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

The lawsuit is also taking aim at the parents of the 11-year-old e-biker, who was riding a tandem, Class 2 e-bike when the collision occurred. Souad and Salih Guler owned the e-bike and should have known that their child could pose a danger to others while operating the bike, which goes up to 20 mph, on a city street, McCarthy said. 

In addition, the manual for the model of e-bike the child was riding “states on the very first page that the minimum age of use is 12 years old,” the suit said, alleging the 11-year-old had time to apply brakes before hitting the SUV but failed to do so. 

“The idea that we have an 11-year-old driving around with their younger sibling on a city street is preposterous,” McCarthy said. “There’s going to be more accidents until the government does something about e-bikes. Children driving e-bikes on public roads is dangerous, period, and it shouldn’t happen.” 

Neither the state nor the city of Burlingame has any law prohibiting children of a certain age from riding e-bikes, which is a larger, systemic factor in the crash, McCarthy said. 

And although police determined the e-bike riders were operating the bike legally and in accordance with traffic laws, that does not exempt both the riders and their parents from civil litigation for negligence, he said after the press conference ended. 

“The investigation into the e-bike rider was very shallow,” McCarthy said. “The e-bike rider should not have been [biking] at all, from a basic negligence standpoint.” 

Ultimately, Ayden’s family is moving forward with litigation to honor and create change in his name, they said. They are also honoring his legacy as a precocious, bright boy and loving big brother by creating several scholarships in his honor and a little library in his name at the crash site. 

“We want to honor his death,” Liu said. “We want to honor the person he is, which is loving, kind and joyful.”