Trucker Gets a Year in Jail for Fatal Crash on Freeway

A Fresno trucker who pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of three people on the Santa Ana Freeway last year was sentenced Monday to a year in Orange County Jail.

Jackie Wayne Dillard, 56, was driving a tractor-trailer rig when he plowed into slowed traffic just south of the interchange with the Garden Grove Freeway in Santa Ana on April 23, 1988, touching off a chain-reaction collision involving 11 vehicles.

In addition to the three people who were killed, 10 others were injured.

Though Dillard was initially booked on suspicion of three counts of vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence, Deputy Dist. Atty. Maurice L. Evans later agreed to allow Dillard to plead no contest to the single count.

Evans said that Dillard had not been drinking or taking drugs and that he was extremely remorseful over what had happened.

Though Dillard could have received three years in prison, Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown agreed with state prison and probation authorities, who said a prison sentence was too severe for the trucker.

Brown sentenced Dillard instead to two years in prison, but suspended it and placed him on probation, with the added provision that he spend a year in the county jail system. Dillard is expected to serve his time at one of the branch jails.

Killed in the collision were Antonio R. Lozano, 69; his wife, Maria S. Lozano, 58, and his brother, Bartolo R. Lozano. The victims’ relatives filed suit against Dillard and his employer, Cal Pacific Inc. of Fresno.