A federal jury in Oregon has awarded nearly $27 million in a road rage case against two trucking companies and their drivers who were involved in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game on U.S. 20 that killed a 30-year-old motorist in 2016.
Sara Allison of Boise was driving east on the highway just east of Burns on June 5, 2016, when she crashed head-on with a flat-bed semi driven by James Decou.
Decou was heading west on the highway and trying to pass another truck that was speeding up and slowing down to keep Decou from getting around him.
Allison was driving a Ford Focus around a bend and suddenly found Decou’s truck heading directly toward her about 8:45 p.m. She swerved to the right to avoid Decou’s truck but they hit head on.
Allison “never had a chance when they came down the road,’’ attorney Steven J. Brady said, addressing reporters Tuesday in Portland after Friday’s verdict in Pendleton.
Decou was driving for Utah-based
Smoot Brothers Transportation and had been racing, speeding, aggressively honking, brake-checking and cutting off Jonathan Hogaboom, the driver of a motor home for Wakarusa, Indiana-based
Horizon Transport, trial testimony showed.
Hogaboom had kept Decou from getting back into the westbound lane. Hogaboom had been instructed by his company to stay off Highway 20 in Oregon and drove off from the crash scene.
Two other drivers for Smoot Brothers, Peter Barnes and Cory Frew, also were involved in the cat-and-mouse driving for over 90 miles on the highway that day, both driving semi-trailers, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“This should never have happened. These were four grown men who were professional drivers. They were trained better. They knew better,’’ said Brady, who represents Allison’s parents and her estate.
www.oregonlive.com
