14-year-old Colorado boy awarded record-breaking $65 million verdict in wrongful death case; Mother dies in crash following family water park trip

The case of a Colorado kid whose mom died due to a highway accident when he was only 10 years old now sees him awarded $65 million in damages for the wrongful death of his mother, more than four years later. The mom of the child, Megan Arneson, who worked as a preschool teacher, had taken time off from work on August 8, 2022, to give her son a surprise visit to Water World, but this mother and son vacation ended up tragically. The two were heading back home on Interstate 25 when the excavator transporting truck hit an overpass. Debris fell on the road, with one large chunk hitting Arneson in the head through the windshield. Arneson died on the spot as her young son tried to call for help.

After a five-day trial, a Larimer County jury unanimously awarded $65 million in wrongful death damages. According to the attorneys Kari Jones Dulin and Travis Young, representing the family, the award marks the largest jury verdict ever recorded in Larimer County and the largest verdict in a trucking crash case in Colorado. Arneson’s son, who suffered minor injuries in the crash, was left orphaned and is now being raised by his grandparents.

"This jury’s verdict is a message to the trucking industry that Megan’s life mattered and that reckless conduct will not be tolerated in Colorado," Kari Jones Dulin, lead counsel for plaintiffs, stated in a press release.

JURY AWARDS $65 MILLION IN WRONGFUL DEATH CASE

According to a press release from Dulin McQuinn Young, LLP, the excavator was being transported by Darnell Yingling, then an employee of Import Auto Inc. Colorado State Patrol determined that the excavator had been improperly loaded, causing its arm to exceed the bridge’s maximum clearance height. Yingling later pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide-reckless driving and was sentenced in January 2024 to four years in community corrections and 300 hours of community service, reported PEOPLE citing Loveland Reporter-Herald.

Import Auto’s attorneys characterized Arneson’s death as a tragic accident and said the company had not experienced another such incident in more than 35 years of operation, reported the media outlet. The verdict, however, brings some relief to the boy, now 14 as the crash permanently changed his life. The outing was supposed to be a memorable summer day with his mother instead became a devastating memory which will keep haunting him into adulthood.