14-year-old boy awarded $65M after mom killed while driving them home from water park

14-year-old boy awarded $65M after mom killed while driving them home from water park

A Colorado jury awarded $65 million to a 14-year-old boy whose mother was killed in "a horrific trucking crash" while they were driving home from a water park, according to a law firm.

Dulin McQuinn Young, LLP on Tuesday said the verdict followed a five-day trial against truck driver Darnell Yingling and his employer, Import Auto Inc., also known as Import Towing and Recovery, in connection with the death of Megan Arneson, 32.

"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," Attorney Kari Jones Dulin, who served as the lead counsel for the boy, said in[a news release].

Arneson and her then-10-year-old son were driving north on Interstate 25 on Aug. 8, 2022, after a trip to a water park. Arneson, a single mother and preschool teacher, had surprised her son with the outing, the boy's attorneys said.

Yingling was hauling an excavator on a tractor-trailer. Colorado State Patrol investigators determined the excavator had been improperly loaded, causing its arm to exceed the clearance beneath an overpass, ...