Road Contractors Liable for Casper Motorcyclist's Death: $2.2 Million Verdict, Reduced to $1.98 Million

On the evening of September 12, 2017, William 'Bill' Gray Jr., 62, was riding his motorcycle west on Yellowstone Highway in Casper, Wyoming, at roughly the posted 40 miles per hour. At the Hat Six and Cole Creek intersection, inside a Knife River paving project, a driver turning left from the eastbound lane crossed into his path. Gray was life-flighted to a Denver hospital and died sixteen days later.

His widow, Tangney Gray-Dockham, sued as wrongful death representative. She did not blame the driver alone. The claim was that Knife River, the general contractor, and RoadWorx Industries, its traffic-control subcontractor, had set up the work zone so that a left turn there was confusing and slow to complete.

The evidence at trial was specific. A day earlier RoadWorx had pulled the traffic control devices from the eastbound lane. The next morning state transportation inspectors rated the setup unacceptable and told Knife River's project superintendent to rebuild the intersection the way it had been arranged during the August 2017 solar eclipse, with clearly delineated turn lanes. RoadWorx's crew moved the devices, and the superintendent signed off on the corrections by 11 a.m. The family's engineer testified the corrections were not properly completed. RoadWorx did not have temporary striping equipment, and neither company put cones or barrels in its place. The last barrel in the left-turn lane sat about thirty-five feet farther from the intersection than it had at the eclipse, so the driver began her turn too early, ended up aiming for the wrong lane, and had to correct inside the intersection. An accident reconstruction engineer and a human-factors expert testified that the correction took her attention away from oncoming traffic, and that she did not see Gray.

The case went to a seven-day jury trial in Natrona County District Court in April 2021, with Judge Kerri Johnson presiding. R. Todd Ingram and Grant Lawson of Metier Law Firm represented the family; Ingram argued the case on appeal. Knife River admitted it was vicariously liable for RoadWorx, and the defense argued that the traffic control had not caused the crash.

The jury disagreed. It found Knife River 60 percent at fault, RoadWorx 30 percent, and the driver, who was not a defendant, 10 percent. It found no willful or wanton conduct and awarded no punitive damages. Total damages were $2.2 million, reduced by the driver's 10 percent share to about $1.98 million: about $1.71 million to Gray-Dockham and $270,000 to Gray's adult daughter.

Knife River and RoadWorx moved for judgment as a matter of law and a new trial, and both motions were denied. On appeal they argued that Knife River's admission of vicarious liability barred any separate claim against it, and that the barrel placement had not caused the crash. The Wyoming Supreme Court rejected both arguments on June 7, 2022. It held that Knife River's own superintendent had directed and approved RoadWorx's work, which was independent negligence the jury was required to weigh, and that the jury could reasonably find the traffic control a substantial factor in the collision. The court affirmed the verdict and judgment.