Jury Clears Railroad in Riverside Train Deaths

Union Pacific Railroad was cleared today of negligence in the deaths of two friends killed when a mile-long train plowed into them near a rail crossing in downtown Riverside, where the women became stranded after the drunken one at the wheel drove onto the tracks.

After deliberating less than two hours, an eight-man, four-woman jury voted 11-1 to find the train company and its crew blameless in the Nov. 1, 2007, deaths of 23-year-old Renee Ammari and 18-year-old Tanya Sayegh.

"The train crew had plenty of opportunity to stop and prevent this tragedy," plaintiffs' attorney Imad Elias told City News Service outside the courtroom. "We're disappointed the jury didn't see it that way."

UPR representatives declined comment.

Closing arguments in the two-week trial concluded Monday afternoon, and the jury deliberated several hours over two days before notifying Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Vineyard late this morning that a decision had been reached. Only nine votes were needed for a finding.

"I do feel anger about this," Tanya Sayegh's mother, Samia, told CNS. "They should have stopped the train and saved my daughter. The crew was not paying attention. My daughter was such a good girl, working hard, going to church, going to school. Our pain and suffering is never going to go away."

The women's families were seeking $20 million from UPR to compensate for the loss. The 150-year-old railroad hauls freight on lines that traverse 23 states and most of Southern California.

Plaintiffs' attorney Ron Makarem conceded in his closing statement that Ammari and Sayegh bore partial responsibility for the fatal wreck. But he said at least 50 percent of the blame rested with the train crew, entitling the families to a minimum $10 million.

"The crew could see the bouncing headlights of the girls' car," he said. "The girls put the hazard lights on 25 seconds before the train reached their location. There was an obvious obstruction. Why didn't the crew apply the brakes?"

Makarem went through testimony by witnesses who calculated time-speed- distance equations, which indicated the crew could have brought the 8-million- pound train to a halt with room to spare if the emergency brakes had been engaged at least 1,200 feet from the crossing.     

Last week, the plaintiffs' expert witness, Colon Fulk, a former train crewman routinely hired to testify in train-related lawsuits, asserted that the engineer should have pulled the 35 mph train's emergency brake within seconds of spotting the headlights of the women's vehicle.

"They had 2,700 feet to go," Fulk said. "Why take a chance?"

"The crew of this train was not careless," UPR attorney Anthony Sonnett countered in his argument to jurors. "The lights from Ms. Ammari's black SUV were not clearly visible until 600 feet before impact."

Sonnett said the accident would have never happened but for Ammari's decision to drink and drive that night. Her blood-alcohol level was .15 -- more than twice the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle in California.

Ammari and Sayegh, both of San Bernardino, had attended a Halloween party at Cafe Sevilla in downtown Riverside. According to investigators, they left the party around 1 a.m., heading southeast on Mission Inn Avenue. Ammari turned her 1996 Honda Passport onto a gravel strip that straddles three sets of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks at Santa Fe Avenue.

The disoriented woman apparently realized her mistake and attempted to make a U-turn on the tracks to get back to Mission Inn, but she ran her SUV into a retaining wall, leaving the rear of the vehicle positioned over a set of tracks.

The women were standing behind the Passport when the northbound train plowed into it, rolling it over them.

—City News Service