A Fresno couple whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver in Georgia three years ago have been awarded a $56.5 million judgment in a wrongful death suit.
Tim Buchanan and Julie Olson-Buchanan lost their 23-year-old daughter Beth Buchanan in a crash on Feb. 13, 2023. Police said Beth Buchanan, who was in a doctorate program at the University of Georgia, was driving her mother to the airport when her car was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver. Buchanan was killed, and her mother was hospitalized for three and a half weeks.
The Buchanans filed a wrongful death suit against the driver, Cesar Raudales Macias, 29, of Athens, who avoided prosecution after fleeing from the hospital where he was being treated for his injuries. Macias remains a fugitive and is wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Olson-Buchanan, who is the dean of the Craig School of Business at Fresno State, said Monday that while her daughter’s death has devastated her family, she is also thankful the Georgia judge ruled in the family’s favor.
The judgment, she said, has helped bring a greater public awareness of her daughter’s passing. Media coverage was scant after the defendant escaped.
“They (law enforcement) advised us to keep it out of the media, because it would make him hide, go further underground,” Olson-Buchanan said. “There was no public outcry, so it felt it didn’t matter to others. To us, it was all that mattered. It’s all we thought about it.”
The judgment and ensuing media coverage has helped heal some of the family’s emotional wounds.
“I feel seen,” Olson-Buchanan said.
Beth Buchanan was driving her mother to the airport in 2023 when a wrong-way driver plowed into her car, killing the 23-year-old. SPECIAL TO THE BEE
Buchanan, a graduate of Clovis West High School and Rice University, was following in her mother’s academic footsteps by working on her PhD in industrial-organizational psychology. Olson-Buchanan has her doctorate in the same field.
Sadly, one of Buchanan’s mentors, Gavin Gladding, also died in a traffic crash. Gladding, a former Clovis Unified vice principal, was struck by a hit-and-run driver in 2018 while out for a jog. He wrote Buchanan’s recommendation letter for her application to Rice .
“She was devastated for his family, just really devastated,” Olson-Buchanan said. “And it is so strange that we are now experiencing the same thing, although under different circumstances.
“You see these cases unfold and you see the public outcry. It reinforces my belief in humanity when people care about you even when they don’t know you. “
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A Valley native, Robert has worked at The Fresno Bee since 1994, covering various topics including education, business, courts and agriculture.