Her Car Ran Out of Gas on I-15, So She Pulled Onto the Shoulder and Put the Flashers On. The Drunk Driver Who Hit It Killed Her and Her 16-Year-Old Son. A Utah Judge Ordered $60 Million.
After trial: This is a bench judgment after a two-day trial in April 2026, with damages ordered in June 2026, and it is recent: no appellate record exists and no post-judgment motion has been reported. No cap applies, because Article XVI, Section 5 of the Utah Constitution forbids limiting wrongful-death damages, as the Utah Supreme Court held in Smith v. United States, 2017 UT 43. Utah Code 78B-8-201(3)(a) sends half of any punitive award above $50,000 to the state; no source says whether that was applied to the $10,000,000 punitive component, and the figure here is the full judgment. The separate judgment against Jeff Pope, limited to the minimum liability coverage he failed to carry on the truck, is not included. Collectability: the defendant is an individual serving a prison sentence, the truck she was driving was uninsured, and no other payer has been identified. The figure here is what the court ordered, not what the family has received.
Won by Flickinger Boulton Robson Weeks.
On Halloween night 2021 Season Dow's car ran out of gas on Interstate 15 in Orem and she stopped on the shoulder with her hazard lights on. Kesley Pope, 22, driving her father's uninsured truck at about twice the legal blood alcohol limit, drove straight into it. Season Dow died at the scene and her 16-year-old son died in hospital. Pope is in prison. In June 2026, after a two-day civil trial, Judge Derek Pullan ordered her to pay the family $60,000,000.
What happened
On October 31, 2021 Season Dow, 43, and her 16-year-old son were driving home to Utah County from an Andrea Bocelli concert in Salt Lake City. Near the 800 North ramp in Orem her Kia ran out of gas. She pulled onto the shoulder of Interstate 15 and turned on the emergency flashers.
Kesley Pope, then 22, was driving her father's Toyota Tacoma work truck with a blood alcohol level about twice the legal limit. She drove straight into the stopped car. Season Dow was killed where she sat. Her son was flown to hospital and put on life support, and died shortly afterward.
Pope was convicted of two counts of automobile homicide, third-degree felonies, and sentenced to zero to five years on each. She is held at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, and the parole board has so far declined to release her.
The civil case was filed in August 2024 in the Fourth District Court in Utah County by Christian Dow, Season's husband, for himself, the couple's surviving children and Season's father, Dennis Frodge. It named Kesley Pope for the crash and her father, Jeff Pope, for handing her the keys. The complaint said he knew her driving record, which included citations for speeding and driving on a suspended licence, and that the truck he let her drive was uninsured.
The case against Kesley Pope was tried to the bench over two days, April 22 and 23, 2026. In June 2026 Judge Derek Pullan set the damages: $50,000,000 in compensatory damages for the heirs' loss of love, companionship, association and relationship, and $10,000,000 in punitive damages. Against Jeff Pope the court ordered an amount equal to the minimum liability insurance limits Utah required him to carry on the truck and he did not, with the exact figure to be fixed at a later hearing.
Daniel Woods of Flickinger Boulton Robson Weeks tried the case for the family; Mark Flickinger was on the filing with him. D. David Lambert and Mika Hillery of Howard, Lewis & Peterson represented Jeff Pope.
Utah cannot cap it. The state constitution, in Article XVI, Section 5, forbids limiting damages for wrongful death, and the Utah Supreme Court enforced that in Smith v. United States, 2017 UT 43. What Utah does do is take a share of punitive awards: under Utah Code 78B-8-201(3)(a), half of any punitive damages above $50,000 goes to the state. If that was applied here the family's share of the $10,000,000 punitive award would be a little over $5,000,000. No coverage of the judgment addresses it.
Asked at her parole hearing what a fair result would be, Kesley Pope said, "What's fair to me is a kajillion dollars; that's what's fair to me." The judgment against her is $60,000,000. The truck was uninsured, and she is in prison.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.KUTV 2News Investigates, 16 June 2026: Judge Derek Pullan of the Fourth Judicial District Court ordering $60 million, being $50 million compensatory for loss of love, companionship, association and relationship and $10 million punitive, after the April 22 and 23, 2026 civil trial; the plaintiffs Christian Dow, the surviving children and Dennis Frodge; the order against Jeff Pope for the state-minimum liability limits he failed to maintain on the uninsured work truck; Daniel Woods of Flickinger Boulton Robson Weeks for the family and D. David Lambert and Mika Hillery of Howard, Lewis & Peterson for Jeff Pope; Kesley Pope's sentence and incarceration; and her parole-hearing statement
- 2.KUTV, August 2024: the filing of the civil suit in the Fourth District Court against Kesley Pope and her father Jeff Pope; the negligent entrustment allegations, her prior citations and the uninsured Toyota Tacoma; the October 31, 2021 crash on I-15 after the car ran out of gas returning from an Andrea Bocelli concert; the ages of Season Dow and her son; and Mark Flickinger and Daniel Woods of Flickinger Boulton Robson Weeks as counsel
- 3.FOX 13, sentencing: Kesley Pope's conviction on two counts of automobile homicide and her prison sentence
- 4.KJZZ: the parole board's denial of release
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