{"id":182549,"date":"2026-02-18T06:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182549\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T06:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:09:11","slug":"civil-trial-to-begin-in-2023-bakersfield-pd-crash-on-south-vineland-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182549\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil trial to begin in 2023 Bakersfield PD crash on South Vineland Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 A 2023 Bakersfield police crash that left a man dead and a woman severely injured is inching its way to trial in civil court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A personal injury and wrongful death case wrapped up in one, the plaintiff\u2019s attorney says this could be the biggest payout the city of Bakersfield has ever made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The question in this case isn\u2019t if Ana Hernandez was injured, it\u2019s how injured was she.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIf you\u2019re a passenger and you get t-boned by a car going impact speed 74 to 78 miles an hour that\u2019s gonna cause some damage to your body,\u201d said Daniel Rodriguez, a plaintiff\u2019s attorney in the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/alta-sierra-ski-resort-open-215223588.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Alta Sierra Ski Resort to open Saturday;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Alta Sierra Ski Resort to open Saturday <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Jan. 19, 2023, a police pursuit started on California Avenue, south of Edison Highway. Officers stopped the pursuit because it was unsafe, and the vehicle was spotted driving down Weedpatch Highway. Then came BPD officer Ricardo Robles, 24 at the time, who drove down Vineland Drive at speeds over 100 mph in hopes to catch up to the pursuit, but he did not have his overhead lights on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He crashed into a Honda Accord carrying two Grimmway Farm workers heading home from work. 31-year-old Mario Lares died, but 36-year-old Ana Hernandez survived and suffered serious injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Daniel Rodriguez, Hernandez\u2019s attorney says the question to be answered in this case is how serious those injuries were to Hernandez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt\u2019s enough to break almost every bone in your sternum, one of the hardest bones in your body. Your wrist, your arms. It\u2019s also gonna do something to the brain which is a little more delicate than bone,\u201d said Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At the case management conference on Tuesday, Rodriguez argued that MRI results showed Hernandez has bleeding on the brain, and needs professional help for the rest of her life because of this crash, in total, he\u2019s seeking $9 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cGiven the nature\u2026how bad the injuries are and they\u2019re permanent and lifelong,\u201d said Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The defense says their case will last four days and their argument will be if Hernandez actually sustained a brain injury, and for the jury to accept a payout that is fair to Robles, the city, and the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 A 2023 Bakersfield police crash that left a man dead and a woman severely&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[86382,151,153,152,86383,86384,4248,48303,86385],"class_list":{"0":"post-182549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-ana-hernandez","9":"tag-bakersfield","10":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","11":"tag-bakersfield-news","12":"tag-daniel-rodriguez","13":"tag-plaintiffs-attorney","14":"tag-police-pursuit","15":"tag-ricardo-robles","16":"tag-wrongful-death-case"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}