CLEVELAND, Ohio — A dump truck driver who knocked down a highway sign that struck and killed the co-owner of A. Ripepi and Sons Funeral Home lost an appeal this week.
The jury that convicted Jason Beard of aggravated vehicular homicide in Daniel Ripepi’s death saw enough evidence to determine that he acted recklessly when he drove away from a work site without first lowering the truck’s bed, the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals found.
Beard, 41, of Bedford, will remain on probation for up to two more years, and his driver’s license will remain suspended for four more years.
Judge Michelle Sheehan wrote the majority opinion that was handed down Thursday. Judge Anita Laster Mays and Sean Gallagher joined it.
Beard was driving for Midland Concrete and Sand on Sept. 24, 2020, when he delivered a load of material to a work site next to Interstate 480. Beard was running late, and he failed to take several safety measures that are common with truck drivers, testimony at his trial showed.
He did not take a so-called “spotter” with him, a person who would watch the height of the truck and alert him if it appeared the truck was too high, authorities said. A state trooper testified that an inspection of the truck after the crash showed the truck had a warning light to indicate the bed was not fully lowered and that it was working at the time of the crash.
Beard drove away from the site to get back on the highway, but he left the dump truck bed raised.
Another driver testified at his trial that he saw the truck wasn’t going to pass under the sign and started to honk, but it appeared that Beard was wearing headphones.
The bed struck the sign at the State Road exit and jarred it loose. It fell to the highway and went through the windshield of the 62-year-old Ripepi’s pickup truck. It struck and killed him.
After the accident, Beard told troopers that he thought he had started to lower the bed and estimated that it would take about 10 seconds to fully lower. A Midland supervisor testified that it took at least 45 seconds for the bed to fully lower.
Beard’s attorneys argued at trial and on appeal that he acted negligently by failing to perceive risks that may exist as a result of their actions. A person is reckless under state law if he or she acts with heedless indifference to the likely risks.
Prosecutors only charged Beard under the reckless standard, so Beard’s attorneys argued that his conviction should be thrown out because the state failed to meet its burden.
But the appellate panel disagreed, and it cited several facts that witnesses testified to that point to his conviction. In addition to Beard running late, not using a spotter and driving with his headphones on, the court cited the Midland supervisor’s testimony that part of the company’s training to all of its drivers includes warning them about the dangers of driving with their beds raised.
Ripepi’s brother, Anthony Ripepi Jr., filed a lawsuit against a number of companies in 2021 that he later dismissed, according to the court’s docket.
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