A Colorado jury has awarded a record-breaking $65 million settlement to a 14-year-old boy after his mother, preschool teacher Megan Arneson, was killed in a freak accident in August 2022. Whilst driving her then-ten-year-old son home from a trip to a water park, a piece of concrete dislodged from a bridge and struck her vehicle, killing her instantly and injuring the boy. This landmark verdict represents the largest trucking accident judgment in Colorado and highlights a case of preventable negligence involving improper vehicle operation.

The concrete was dislodged when an excavator being towed by semi-truck driver Darnell Yingling struck the bridge; the excavator had been improperly loaded, causing its arm to exceed the maximum clearance height. The jury found Yingling 52 per cent responsible and his employer, Import Towing & Recovery, 46 per cent responsible, with the settlement split accordingly (Yingling owing $33.8 million and the company $29.9 million). Significantly, Yingling had obtained his unrestricted Commercial Driver's Licence only four days before the accident and later pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide with reckless driving. Normally, wrongful death damages in Colorado are capped at approximately $2 million, but the court removed this cap after finding the defendants' conduct "so egregious that it rose to the level of felonious killing."