Largest Truck Accident Group Settlements and Recovery Funds

A Nassau County jury found two trucking companies responsible for the 2017 chain-reaction crash on I-95 near Yulee that killed 18-year-old Connor Dzion, returning a $1 billion verdict that Curry Pajcic won for the teen's parents.

A Titus County jury awarded $730 million to the family of Toni Combest, a 73-year-old great-grandmother killed when a Landstar Ranger truck hauling a 197,000-pound Navy submarine propeller struck her car on a narrow Highway 271 bridge, though the family's actual recovery came from pretrial settlements: $50 million from Landstar Ranger and $1 million from escort company S&M Pilot Service, with the verdict itself returned against the small front-escort company 2A Pilot Cars.

A Leon County jury awarded $411,726,608 to Duane Washington, a career Army sergeant left partially paralyzed in a 45-vehicle pileup on Interstate 10 near Tallahassee, in the Second Judicial Circuit's first virtual jury trial. Ben Crump tried the damages case with co-counsel Robert Cox. Liability was entered by default after defendant Top Auto Express stopped responding in the litigation, its lawyer withdrew months before trial, the one-truck Pembroke Pines carrier sat out the Zoom trial undefended, and industry observers called the record number essentially uncollectable beyond the roughly $1 million in insurance that was offered and rejected before trial.

On February 13, 2016, 21-year-old Riley McPherson was killed on U.S. 271 near Gilmer, Texas, when his van struck the side of a Jefferson Trucking flatbed tractor-trailer that was blocking all four lanes of the highway while its driver, on hour 17 of a run home from Ohio, tried to back it into a private driveway. McPherson's parents, Eddie McPherson and Karen Pearson, sued Jefferson Trucking, driver Eric Wayne Jefferson, and Timothy Wayne Jefferson in the 115th District Court of Upshur County. On November 8, 2018, a jury apportioned 65 percent fault to Eric Jefferson, 20 percent to Jefferson Trucking, 10 percent to Timothy Jefferson, and 5 percent to McPherson, and set damages at $260 million, which the comparative-fault finding reduced to $247 million. The defendants appealed, then voluntarily dismissed their own appeal, leaving the trial court judgment intact.

A Santa Fe jury awarded $165.5 million, the largest verdict in New Mexico history, to the survivors of a young mother and her daughter killed when a FedEx tractor-trailer plowed into their stopped pickup at highway speed on Interstate 10.

A Jefferson Circuit Court jury awarded $163,973,760 to Jilianne Warner, who was left permanently quadriplegic after a GEICO-dispatched tow truck plowed into her stopped car at highway speed; the verdict was later overturned on appeal.

A Los Angeles County jury awarded $150,750,000 against truck driver Rudolph Ortiz and Bhandal Bros. Trucking for a girl who was orphaned when her family's SUV struck an 18-wheeler parked without lights on the shoulder of the 210 Freeway and caught fire, killing her parents and eldest brother. Brian Brandt tried the case for the plaintiff. The verdict did not stand: on February 3, 2014, Judge Marc Marmaro granted the defense a new trial, finding the award excessive, and the case then settled in April 2014 on confidential terms before any retrial.

Before dawn on May 24, 2020, a Werner Enterprises tractor-trailer struck the rear of a passenger car stopped in a live lane of Interstate 30 near Sulphur Springs, Texas, with two children, ages 7 and 9, inside. The car caught fire and both children died. Their parents sued Werner and its driver, alleging negligent and grossly negligent operation of the tractor-trailer, negligent hiring, training, and supervision of the driver, and negligent entrustment of the truck. In July 2022, Werner announced it had agreed to pay $150 million to resolve the case without a trial, funded by the company and its insurance carriers. Goudarzi & Young, through founding partner Brent Goudarzi, represented the family.

A Nassau County jury awarded $141.5 million, including $125 million in punitive damages, against K&N Logging after an unvetted driver's 80,000-pound log truck plowed into stopped school-zone traffic and left a young child with permanent brain damage.

A 39-year-old man was left quadriplegic in 2017 when an 18-wheeler struck his vehicle on Highway 259 near Ore City in Upshur County, Texas. The case went to trial, where evidence showed the truck's driver, Dijuana Smith, had been involved in multiple crashes before the wreck, and where attorneys said she had violated state and federal trucking regulations. Goudarzi & Young, L.L.P., of Gilmer, Texas, represented the injured man, and the parties reached a $140 million settlement in July 2019. The firm, and later a Lawdragon profile of managing partner Brent Goudarzi, both described it as the largest settlement for a single plaintiff in American legal history. The identities of the plaintiff and the trucking company were not publicly disclosed.

A unanimous Dimmit County jury awarded $281 million, including $181 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages, to the family of Carlos Aguilar, a 31-year-old Army veteran and father of seven killed when a drive shaft broke off a Heckmann Water Resources 18-wheeler and crashed through the windshield of the pickup he was riding in. Gene S. Hagood of Alvin tried the case with Laredo co-counsel John R. Solis and Jose Luis Castillo. The trial court reduced the judgment to $163.8 million and then to $105.2 million on post-trial motions, and in July 2014 the case settled on confidential terms, with parent company Nuverra disclosing it funded $5.5 million of the settlement alongside an undisclosed insurer payment.

In April 2023 a Wayne County jury awarded $96 million to the widow and mother of Jude and Zachary Attianese, a New Jersey father and son killed when a Challenger Motor Freight tractor-trailer rear-ended their car in an I-75 construction zone in 2018. The company had acknowledged responsibility, so the trial addressed damages. The driver was taking medications for Parkinson's disease, and the company had known of his diagnosis since 2015.

Sherri Tramble, 36, was a St. Landry Parish paramedic riding unrestrained in the back of an ambulance, starting an IV on a patient en route to hospital, when a pickup turned across the ambulance's path without yielding. She has multiple skull fractures, a C-7 fracture and a permanent traumatic brain injury, and has since been interdicted.

A Callaway County jury awarded Beth Mayhew and her husband $82.3 million after a truck driver hit their vehicle on I-70 while driving with both feet on the dashboard and holding an iPad to watch videos.

A Jefferson County jury awarded $82,105,345.70 to Michael Shank, a motorcyclist whose left arm and left leg were amputated after a commercial truck struck him near Steubenville. The verdict is reported as the largest trucking verdict in Ohio history, in a case the defense had offered $350,000 to settle.

A retrial jury in Utah's Fourth District Court awarded $81 million against Beacon Roofing Supply after one of its trucks struck and killed a 12-year-old boy who was crossing legally in a marked crosswalk.

Orlando Robles, 38, of El Paso, died in October 2020 when the Mesilla Valley Transportation tractor-trailer he was resting in struck a parked box truck on Interstate 40 in Oklahoma after the driver fell asleep. In July 2026 an El Paso jury found the carrier and its driver responsible and awarded $76.5 million to Robles' wife, mother and five daughters. A separate award went to his son through other counsel. The company has said it is evaluating appellate options.

On July 18, 2016, a Schnitzer Southeast tractor-trailer crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 80 in Russell County, Alabama, and killed five members of one family in a head-on collision, including Judy Madere, 58. A Muscogee County State Court jury in Columbus, Georgia found Schnitzer Southeast and its parent, Schnitzer Steel Industries, liable and returned a $280,065,000 verdict for Madere's death on August 23, 2019, reported at the time as the largest wrongful death verdict against a trucking company. Schnitzer said it would appeal, but instead of litigating the verdict, it resolved Madere's suit together with her twin sister Trudy Hebert's separate, still pending suit from the same crash for a combined $68 million in the following fiscal quarter, according to Schnitzer's SEC filings. Three earlier suits from the same crash, brought by the estates of the two children and their mother, had already settled for $35 million combined. The individual amounts within the $68 million settlement are not public.

A Larimer County jury returned a $65 million wrongful death verdict in September 2026 for the family of Megan Arneson, a 32-year-old single mother killed on I-25 near Mead in August 2022. A semi hauling an improperly loaded excavator struck an overpass, and falling concrete came through her windshield. The jury found the driver and his employer liable after a five-day trial. Plaintiffs' counsel described it as the largest jury verdict in Larimer County history and the largest in a Colorado trucking crash case.

A Clay County, Missouri jury awarded $65 million to a child who suffered a permanent brain injury before birth when a UPS delivery truck struck his mother's car while she was 13 weeks pregnant. With prejudgment interest, the judgment came to roughly $75.3 million, and the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed it in May 2025.

A New Mexico jury awarded $58.5 million, believed at the time to be the state's largest truck verdict, to the family of Kevin Udy, a mechanical engineer killed in 2010 when a tanker truck turned into his path on a highway near Carlsbad.

An Essex County jury awarded $55 million to Angel May Rider, a young barista who lost both legs after a tractor trailer owned by Jersey City Transfer and Alert Motor Freight jackknifed on a rain-slicked stretch of I-95 and pinned her against a guardrail. Reported as the largest verdict in Essex County history, the award was affirmed in full by the New Jersey Appellate Division in May 2026.

A Citrus County jury awarded $54.1 million to the family of Jeffery Hindalong, killed when a Freightliner bucket truck driven by a tree-service employee swerved across the center line into his vehicle. Morgan & Morgan partner Jonathan Brozyna and the firm's trial team took the case to verdict after the family turned down a $2 million settlement offer.

A Los Angeles County jury awarded $53.7 million to two brothers left with traumatic brain injuries after a CRST big rig crossed the center line on State Route 14 and hit their car head-on.