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).
In a heartbreaking turn of events, a family is seeking justice through the courts following the tragic loss of their 4-year-old son, who was killed in a chain-reaction crash outside a restaurant in California. They argue that the accident, which took their child’s life, was completely preventable.
Ayden Fang’s father expressed the family’s motivation behind the lawsuit in a press release, stating, “Our sincere hope in bringing this case is that we will make our community safer for other families.” The lawsuit, detailed in a 25-page complaint, targets multiple parties, including the city of Burlingame, the driver involved in the crash, her parents, and the parents of an 11-year-old boy accused of colliding with the SUV’s driver on an e-bike.
The incident unfolded on August 8, 2025, as described in the lawsuit, which chronicles a series of “avoidable events.” Ayden was outside Truffle Poke restaurant in Burlingame, California, enjoying a playtime with a friend and the friend’s father.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old driver was attempting to make a left turn from a parking lot onto Donnelly Avenue, where the restaurant is situated. The lawsuit claims her view was obstructed by a legally parked vehicle, making it difficult to see oncoming traffic.
The situation escalated when the young driver, maneuvering her 2018 Mazda SUV, was hit on the rear driver’s side door by an 11-year-old boy riding an e-bike, with his 10-year-old sister as a passenger. According to the complaint, the e-bike’s owner’s manual clearly indicates that the boy was below the minimum age to safely operate the motorized bicycle, and carrying passengers was noted as a safety risk.
The impact from the e-bike caused the inexperienced driver to mistakenly press the gas pedal instead of the brake, propelling the SUV onto the sidewalk where it tragically struck Ayden. The vehicle then crashed through the restaurant’s storefront, coming to a stop just feet away 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.”
