A Larimer County jury just handed down Colorado’s largest trucking crash verdict. The facts behind it aren’t complicated. That’s the point.

About 6 p.m. on August 8, 2022, Megan Arneson was driving northbound on I-25 near Mead with her then-10-year-old son when Darnell Yingling, a driver for Import Auto Inc., attempted to pass their car in his tractor-trailer as they went under the Weld County Road 34 overpass. Arneson had taken the day off work to surprise her son with a trip to Water World, and they were returning home. Yingling’s trailer carried an excavator he had improperly loaded. The Colorado State Patrol investigated the crash and discovered that the excavator was improperly loaded onto the trailer, causing an extended arm to collide with the overpass of Weld County Road 34 and send debris and dust onto the northbound lanes of I-25. Concrete in the debris impaled the windshield and hit Arneson on the head, causing her to careen off the road. Arneson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Following a five-day trial, a Larimer County jury unanimously awarded $65 million against the defendants for wrongful death damages. According to the firm, the $65 million verdict is the largest ever reached in Larimer County and the largest trucking crash verdict ever reached in Colorado. The boy who watched his mother die on I-25 is now 14. He watched that happen, too. The verdict doesn’t change either fact. What it does is put a number on what an uninspected load costs when it kills someone on an interstate, and that number is now part of the Colorado record.

A lawsuit was filed against Yingling and Import Auto, alleging that he was improperly trained and that the load was not inspected before the incident. Those two allegations are the spine of everything that happened in that Larimer County courtroom. Not speed. Not impairment. Improper training and no pre-trip load inspection. The carrier knew, or should have known, what it was putting on the road. The plaintiff’s theory is simple: you don’t get to skip the inspection and then walk away when the arm comes off the bridge.

The federal rule that governs this isn’t obscure. Federal cargo securement rules under 49 CFR Part 393, Subpart I apply to all commercial motor vehicles over 10,001 lbs GVWR. For heavy equipment specifically, the rule is 49 CFR 393.130. Heavy equipment tie-down is the second most-cited cargo securement violation in North American Standard Level 1 inspections, and the equipment-specific rules under FMCSA 49 CFR 393.130 dictate exactly how excavators, skid-steers, wheel loaders, dozers, and articulated equipment must be secured. The boom-position rule is not a suggestion. The securement configuration requires positioning the excavator with the boom extended forward, resting on the deck — transport with boom raised is prohibited because center of gravity elevation is a rollover risk. Yingling’s excavator wasn’t configured that way. Its arm was extended, and when that arm caught the Weld County Road 34 overpass, the bridge did the rest.

The criminal side of this closed before the civil jury ever sat down. Yingling was charged with vehicular homicide in Weld County in 2023, according to online court records. He pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide involving reckless driving, a Class 4 felony, in November 2023. In January 2024, Yingling was sentenced to four years in community corrections, which is a sentencing alternative to prison in felony cases. Four years in community corrections for killing a mother on a family day out is what the criminal system produced. The civil jury, given a different question and a different standard of proof, produced $65 million. Those two numbers together tell you something about where accountability for trucking deaths actually lands in this country.

The allegations against Import Auto go beyond the driver. The lawsuit alleged that Yingling was improperly trained and that the load was not inspected before the incident. That’s the carrier’s exposure, not just the driver’s. A motor carrier operating in interstate commerce is responsible under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for ensuring its drivers are qualified and loads are secured before they move. That’s not a gray area. On September 27, 2002, FMCSA published the cargo securement rules, and motor carriers operating in interstate commerce were required to comply beginning January 1, 2004. Import Auto had been operating under those rules for nearly two decades when that trailer pulled onto I-25. The jury’s unanimous verdict says the carrier didn’t follow them.

This verdict’s meaning for everyone else in the industry is straightforward. Load inspection is a pre-trip obligation, not optional. FMCSA regulations require at least four independent tie-downs for heavy equipment weighing over 5,000 lbs, regardless of calculations. For an excavator, the rule specifies boom position, chain routing, and attachment points. Excavators in the 10,000 to 30,000 lb range require a minimum of four chains, configured with two chains at the rear of the tracks or undercarriage, attached to the equipment’s factory tie-down points and routed down to opposite trailer anchors at 30 to 45-degree angles. Every step of that is documentable. Every step of that is auditable after the fact. When none of it happens, and a woman dies, those missing steps become a jury’s exhibit list.

The liability theory here extends past the driver’s seat, and carriers and brokers both need to read it that way. When a company dispatches a driver with a load that’s never been inspected and the driver isn’t trained to inspect it, the company has selected that risk. It didn’t accidentally select it. It selected it by doing nothing, and doing nothing has a price. According to the plaintiffs’ firm, that price in Colorado is now $65 million, the largest trucking crash verdict the state has seen.

According to Arneson’s obituary, she had been the assistant director at Children’s Workshop in Loveland and had a passion for teaching and caring for young children. She and her son enjoyed fishing and camping together. He was ten when he rode home from Water World in the car that the concrete hit. He’s 14 now, and a Larimer County jury just spent five days making sure the record says what happened to his mother and why. Pull your load securement logs. Pull your driver training records for any operator who moves heavy equipment. The next jury that reads 49 CFR 393.130 back to a carrier has now seen what that conversation costs.