California Jury Awards $29.2M to Victims of Fatal Crash

A Solano County jury has awarded more than $29 million to the victims of a head-on crash near Fairfield that killed two children.

Jurors on Monday assigned most of the blame for the 2006 crash to Nicola Bucci. Bucci was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of a 12-year-old and 7-year-old who were in the vehicle that his SUV slammed into.

But jurors also said the California Department of Transportation had failed to make improvements such as installing a median to the two-lane highway where the crash occurred. The road has apparently experienced numerous fatal crashes.

Thomas Brandi, an attorney for the victims, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that the state is responsible for about $20 million of the jury award.

A call to Caltrans early Wednesday morning was not immediately returned.