An injured passenger involved in a fatal high speed collision at 100 miles per hour has voluntarily dismissed the suit against the two drivers he alleged were responsible.
Plaintiff Tanner Gestes filed his motion to dismiss on June 24 through attorney John H. Hustava of Collinsville.
St. Clair County Circuit Judge Randall Kelley granted his motion on June 25, dismissing the case without prejudice to the plaintiff.
Gestes filed an April 27 complaint against Donald J. Friese and Brandy L. Hayes.
Last year, state’s attorney Brendan Kelly charged Friese with murder or action creating a strong possibility of killing or injuring another after passenger Mercedes Ferrarie-Troisi died in the collision.
The defendant has remained in jail since the crash.
At 4:25 a.m. on April 29, 2013, Gestes was a passenger in a vehicle being driven west on Collinsville Road at 47th Street in Fairmont City, when another vehicle being driven by Friese was driving in the same direction and location at a high rate of speed
Then Friese hit the rear of the vehicle the plaintiff was riding in, injuring him, the suit states. At the same time, Hayes was also allegedly driving her vehicle at a high rate of speed when she lost control of and collided with the car in which Gestes was riding.
Both defendants were accused of failing to keep a proper lookout, driving in a way that let her vehicle leave her lane, failing to properly apply her brakes, failing to operate at a safe speed and failing to equip her vehicle with adequate brakes.
In another related lawsuit, decedent Ferrarie-Troisi's mother seeks damages from the defendants for wrongful death (14-L-544).
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 15-L-248