Background: Authorities investigate after a vehicle crashed into 4-year-old Ayden Fang and a poke bar restaurant in Burlingame, California (Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy Complaint). Inset: Ayden Fang (Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy Complaint).
After their 4-year-old son was killed in a chain-reaction crash outside a California restaurant, a family has sued multiple people and the city where it happened, claiming their child's death was entirely "preventable."
"Our sincere hope in bringing this case is that we will make our community safer for other families," Ayden Fang's father said in a press release announcing the 25-page complaint. They are suing the city of Burlingame, the driver "involved in the crash," her parents, and the parents of an 11-year-old boy who allegedly struck the SUV's driver with an e-bike.
On Aug. 8, 2025, "a series of avoidable events" began, the lawsuit states. Ayden's family was at Truffle Poke restaurant in Burlingame, California, and Ayden was playing out front with a friend and the friend's father.
At the same time, a 19-year-old girl was turning left out of a parking lot onto Donnelly Avenue, where the restaurant is located. According to the lawsuit, her view of oncoming traffic "was impeded" by a vehicle legally parked in accordance with city laws.
As the teen pulled out of the lot in her 2018 Mazda SUV, "she was struck on her rear driver's side door by an 11-year-old boy" who was riding an e-bike with his 10-year-old sister on the back. "Based on the e-bike's Owner's Manual," the complaint states, the boy "was below the minimum age to safely ride the motorized bicycle, and carrying passengers was prohibited as a safety risk."
Upon the e-bike's impact, the Mazda motorist — a "new driver" as the lawsuit puts it — "hit the gas pedal instead of the brake." The SUV accelerated onto the sidewalk, hit Ayden, "and barreled through the storefront of the restaurant, coming to rest [] mere feet" from Ayden's parents.
"Ayden's parents experienced this vehicle crashing into the restaurant and almost hitting them," the complaint reads. "They rushed to Ayden's aid. They found him underneath the vehicle, motionless, with fractured skull and spilled brain matter. That horrific memory is permanent."
"Ayden's death was preventable," it goes on, alleging that each of the defendants "had a role in causing this life-ending event."
First, the city of Burlingame bears responsibility, the parents say, as it "has a record of ignoring and de-prioritizing pedestrian safety." Beginning one year before the crash, "Burlingame had three-four times the pedestrian fatalities as the national average."
In this case, the city "was on notice" that the driveway from where the teen was turning "was the source of multiple near-misses and posed a threat to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians," especially because vehicles could park "right up to the edge" of it, making it "difficult or impossible" for vehicles pulling out to see.
The parents cite the teen driver's alleged comments to first responders about her vision being obstructed, as well as photos, to back up their account. They also state that the city had "received nearly a dozen calls" about issues with "this exact driveway location in the years leading up to the crash."
The parking space that reportedly blocked the teen's sightline was removed soon after.
The Mazda driver and her parents are also partly to blame, the lawsuit claims. Her actions — including accelerating up to 27 mph after the e-bike hit her vehicle — were "clearly negligent" and her parents "knew or should have known" that she was "incompetent and unfit to operate that motor vehicle."
Finally, the parents of the 11-year-old on the e-bike "failed to supervise their minor son and entrusted him to operate a motorized e-bike capable of going up to 20 miles per hour on city streets," the lawsuit adds. "No reasonable parents would have permitted an 11-year-old to use this motorized vehicle on crowded city streets with another minor sibling on the back of the bike."
The parents are demanding a jury trial and "compensatory and general damages."
Ayden is remembered at the beginning of the lawsuit as having been "a bright, inquisitive, and energetic boy who was kind to others, loved to read, and loved spending time with his toddler brother and parents." He also "carried an infectious smile, walked around singing, and made sentences into songs."
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