Caltrans fights to limit damages in death of Modesto woman during homeless camp sweep
More than three years after a woman sleeping at a homeless encampment along Highway 99 in Modesto was crushed by a Caltrans front loader, the wrongful death case brought by her father began this week in Stanislaus County Superior Court.
Shannon Bigley, 32, died just before 6 a.m. on Aug. 1, 2018, when Caltrans equipment operator Brady Walker drove a front loader into the grassy ravine along Highway 99, south of Kansas Avenue, where she was sleeping.
Walker was clearing the area of debris as part of one of many daily sweeps by Caltrans to remove homeless encampments from its property.
California Highway Patrol investigators found that “(Walker’s) actions, of using the loader’s bucket to scrape debris backwards, unintentionally caused the death of Ms. Bigley,” according to a coroner’s report.
The bucket crushed Bigley’s skull and upper body. She died of multiple injuries to her head, neck, chest and abdomen.
Maurice Bigley filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Caltrans and Walker about a month later.
“Caltrans and Brady Walker admitted they were negligent and 100% liable for the death of Shannon Bigley,” Maurice Bigley’s attorney, Eric Khodadian, said in an email to The Bee sent just before the trial started Tuesday.
“They further admit that they have no legal defense whatsoever and that Shannon Bigley was not at fault in any way, shape, or form for her death,” he said in the email.
Therefore, during jury instruction, Judge Stacy Speiller made it clear that the jurors’ decision would determine only what damages, if any, should be awarded to Maurice Bigley, not whether Caltrans was liable.
The case originally involved a second plaintiff, Shannon Bigley’s estranged husband, Ernest Gray. He filed suit about six months after Maurice Bigley and the cases eventually were consolidated.
Gray died June 11 in Olympia, Wash. His children from previous relationships were briefly named successors in interest but dismissed their father’s claim before trial started.
Gray and Shannon Bigley also had two children together but they lost custody of them when they were young. Both children were adopted and were never part of the lawsuit.
The attorney for Caltrans, Jeffrey Knox, said Maurice and Shannon Bigley did not have a close relationship.
Knox said in his opening statement that Maurice Bigley drifted apart from his daughter when she moved out at age 17, and that he was “already a stranger” to Shannon at the time of her death.
Bigley learned about his daughter’s marriage and the birth of her two children only after they happened and did not make a great effort to see her when his trucking route took him through the area, according to Knox.
Bigley, however, said he loved his daughter and tried connecting with her as much as possible. But difficulties in his own life and unreliable contact information for Shannon Bigley — her phone number sometimes would change as often as every month — left him unable to be around as much as he says he wanted to be.
From the time Shannon’s mother announced her pregnancy, Maurice Bigley said, he remembers being thrilled to have a daughter.
His service in the Navy sometimes pulled him away from his family, including during the first months of Shannon’s life. He was deployed 15 days after she was born, but said he took a photo of her with him to brag to his shipmates.
“It was a long time, very long time,” Bigley said. “It sucked.”
Shannon Bigley was a caring child, Bigley said. She painted a pumpkin instead of carving it because she had “talked” with the pumpkin and didn’t want to hurt it.
Some of her personality changed when she was around 8 and suffered brain damage from crashing into another child while riding her bike. She had trouble recognizing her stepsisters when she woke up.
“Her ability to get along with others was hurt by this injury,” Bigley said.
He and his second wife, whom he married after divorcing Shannon’s mother, took turns staying with Shannon Bigley in a Seattle-area trauma center where she stayed for a month. Whenever he wasn’t working, Maurice Bigley would be there, he said.
After Maurice Bigley divorced Shannon’s stepmom, the father and daughter moved in with his parents. Shannon Bigley lived there until she was 17, when she decided to live with her mom in Stockton.
“It was hurtful,” he said.
He said Shannon Bigley’s mother was a drug user and he feared this would influence his daughter to start using as well. The head injury also left developmental problems that worried Maurice Bigley, but he let Shannon Bigley go and promised to take her back if it didn’t work out.
After leaving the military and working other jobs, Maurice Bigley became a truck driver. His normal route between the Pacific Northwest and Arizona took him through the Stockton area, but he didn’t often visit.
Maurice Bigley said he sometimes would stop in the area and take his daughter to lunch or dinner. He said he could not always make time because of his driving schedule.
The two would communicate often at first, but that dwindled over the years, Maurice Bigley said.
The news that she had died came as a shock. CPS asked Maurice Bigley to take her children. He said he wanted to but felt he would not be the best person due to health problems.
The trial is set to resume Tuesday.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 11:15 AM.
