Oregon Federal Jury Returns $26.5 Million Verdict in 90-Mile Road-Rage Truck Crash

On June 5, 2016, Matthew and Sara Allison were driving home to Boise, Idaho, on Highway 20 east of Burns, Oregon. Sara, 30, was at the wheel of their Ford Focus so that Matthew, 27, could rest. The couple had been married five years. Near milepost 156, a flatbed semi crossed the center line and hit their car head-on. Sara was killed. Matthew survived with broken ribs, a lacerated spleen, and head trauma.

The crash was the end of a running fight between truck drivers that had stretched for roughly 90 miles after the trucks crossed from Idaho into Oregon. Three drivers for Smoot Brothers Transportation of Brigham City, Utah (James Decou, Peter Barnes, and Cory Frew) were hauling semis toward Eugene when they tangled with Jonathan Hogaboom, who was delivering a 45-foot motorhome for Horizon Transport of Wakarusa, Indiana. Witnesses described speeding, illegal passing, blaring air horns, brake checking, and trucks pinning each other in the oncoming lane. Decou's semi was in that oncoming lane when it struck the Allisons.

Decou later pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to six years and three months in prison.

Matthew Allison and Sara's estate were represented by Tom D'Amore, Douglas Oh-Keith, and Amy Bruning of D'Amore Law Group. The case was tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in Pendleton before Magistrate Judge Patricia Sullivan, starting April 30, 2019. Over nine days, the plaintiffs' team argued that both companies and all four drivers shared in the negligent and reckless conduct that turned a two-lane highway into a trap, and that company drivers escalated the duel mile after mile rather than backing off.

On May 10, 2019, the jury returned a verdict of about $26.5 million. It awarded Sara Allison's estate $12.4 million ($2.4 million economic and $10 million noneconomic), Matthew Allison $7.6 million ($600,000 economic and $7 million noneconomic), and $6.5 million in punitive damages, split $1.5 million against Smoot and $5 million against Horizon. Under Oregon law, 70 percent of the punitive award went to the state crime victims fund. Before the verdict, Smoot Brothers had quietly settled with the estate for $900,000, a Mary Carter agreement the jury never heard about, leaving Horizon Transport responsible for most of the award.

The defendants asked the trial court for a new trial or a reduced award, and the court refused. They appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2020, the parties resolved the appeal through the court's mediation program, and the full $26.5 million verdict stood.