IRVINE : Parents of Car Crash Victims Sue Driver’s Kin

The parents of two young men killed in a 1994 accident have sued the parents of their sons’ best friend, Ryan Lemmon of Irvine, who flipped his pickup trick while driving in Arizona.

Lemmon, 19, also died in the crash with Babak (Bob) Dogmetchi, 20, and Arash Ghazinoor, 19. All had been friends from childhood and had graduated from Woodbridge High School, where Lemmon was a star baseball player. Christopher Peake, 19, also of Irvine, was the only survivor.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court seeks damages for pain and suffering and reimbursement for funeral and legal costs.

The friends were returning from the University of Arizona, where they had spent a summer weekend. Lemmon was driving at 11:40 a.m. on Interstate 8 when his pickup truck struck the median while traveling about 65 m.p.h., and rolled over.

The lawsuit claimed that Lemmon’s parents, Guy and Marcie Lemmon, knew their son was a “careless and reckless” person and “reckless driver” of vehicles. They “negligently permitted” their son to drive the pickup.

The deaths sent shock waves through the Irvine community. More than 500 family and friends turned out for the burial of Dogmetchi and Ghazinoor, who were first cousins.

“These were four kids all who appeared to be great young men,” said Robert W. Finnerty, a Los Angeles attorney representing the plaintiffs in the suit. “There’s certainly no intent, with respect to the lawsuit, to further impact the families.”

Lemmon had starred for the Woodbridge baseball team and also played for one year at Pepperdine University.

In May, community residents formed a committee and named the 400-seat Windrow Community Park in Irvine after Lemmon.