Arbitration Panel Awards $1.2 Million to Canby Teen Run Down on the Sidewalk by a Drunk Driver

In May 2017, Connor Zieg was a senior at Canby High School, about two months from leaving for U.S. Marine Corps boot camp. One afternoon he was walking along a sidewalk in Canby with a friend when a truck came at them at 40 to 50 miles per hour. The driver, Gerald Cochran, had a blood alcohol level of .285, more than three times the legal limit. He had fallen asleep at the wheel, his foot caught the gas pedal, and the truck climbed the curb.

The truck ran over Zieg and struck his friend. Cochran kept going for about a quarter of a mile, taking out mailboxes, power boxes, and parked cars before stopping in brush near the railroad tracks. A KOIN 6 report from that day described two Canby High students hit on the sidewalk and said witnesses saw the truck on fire before it crashed. One teenager was flown out by Life Flight.

Zieg took the brunt of it. He suffered a brain injury, head trauma, broken bones, and internal injuries, and was airlifted to the hospital. His friend managed to get up and stay with him until help arrived; she had a concussion and lasting emotional trauma. At the scene, police found three empty 18-pack beer boxes in the truck's tool box and a fourth in the trailer.

Cochran pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree assault, driving under the influence of intoxicants, and second-degree criminal mischief, and was sentenced to prison. The injuries also cost Zieg his military career. A Marine medical evaluator found that he no longer met physical standards because of his chest surgery and traumatic brain injury, and recommended against a waiver.

Cochran was underinsured. Zieg's family had carried Safeco coverage for 41 years, but the insurer refused to pay the policy limits and pushed the claim into arbitration. Tom D'Amore of D'Amore Law Group represented Zieg, documenting the medical bills, the permanent injuries, and the lost path to the Marines.

The arbitration panel sided with Zieg and ordered Safeco to pay more than $1.2 million, an amount that accounted for his medical expenses, permanent injuries, and the interference with his life. His actual recovery was much smaller. The family's policy capped payment at $500,000, and the costs for attorneys and experts came out of that figure. Zieg, who had hoped to serve as an infantryman or drive tanks and big rigs in the Marines, later took a restaurant job while weighing a return to school or a trade.