Truck driver who caused crash killing 7 Marion County farmworkers wasn’t impaired, lawyer argues

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Adan Garcia-Garcia had just pulled over on the freeway.

The 40-year-old farmworker stepped out on the shoulder of Interstate 5 before seeing a semi truck bolting toward the van carrying his brother, nephew and eight other coworkers. 

Seven farmworkers were killed and three others seriously injured in what was one of the most horrific collisions to ever occur in Marion County.

The crash on May 18, 2023, just south of Salem, brought into focus the dangers agricultural workers face while traveling to and from work.

Tuesday marked the start of the criminal trial of Lincoln C. Smith, the truck driver who caused the deadly crash.

“You will hear the witnesses in this case describe this scene as something they’ve never seen before or since,” said Marion County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Spooner during opening statements.

There is no question that Smith, 53, of North Highlands, California, plowed his Freightliner semi truck into a van carrying the workers on the side of the road, crumpling the van into another semi truck. 

Marion County prosecutors and Smith’s attorneys also agree that Smith had used methamphetamine the day before the crash.

But Smith, who has been in jail for 20 months awaiting trial, will soon walk free if all 12 jurors don’t find that he was intoxicated and driving recklessly at the time of the crash. 

Smith faces seven counts of second-degree manslaughter and three counts of third-degree assault. He is also accused of driving recklessly and while under the influence of drugs.

His lawyers signaled on Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court that they will argue he wasn’t impaired by the time the crash occurred. 

They will push for Smith to be cleared of all charges or, at most, convicted of less serious crimes. If jurors find Smith not guilty of manslaughter, they will then decide whether to convict him of criminally negligent homicide.

Attorney Tiffany Humphrey, who is representing the truck driver, said jurors will hear from many police officers that the crash was one of the worst scenes they had ever seen. 

“It was chaotic. It was grisly. It was sad. It was very emotional,” she said. They will argue that the intensity of the scene led police to incorrectly interpret Smith’s sweating, dizziness and inability to focus as signs of intoxication.

Opening statements on Tuesday provided this account of the events surrounding the fatal crash.

Smith at the time was living near Sacramento and had been a truck driver for 18 years. Working five to six days a week, he essentially lived out of the cab of his truck.

In the early morning hours of May 17, 2023, he hooked up a trailer to his semi truck and headed north. He picked up two hitchhikers along the way who rode with him to Oregon. Around 8 p.m., he found a place in Sutherlin where he could park for the night. 

“Before they all got out of the truck, the three of them, they partied. They did some drugs,” Humphrey said. “Shortly thereafter, they went their separate ways.”

Smith then took his dog for a walk, got food and went to bed. 

“Lincoln Smith does drugs on his own time,” Humphrey said. “He has been doing them off and on for many, many years.” She told jurors that they would learn during the trial about how drug users build tolerance.

Smith got back on the road the next morning and made three stops along the way. Humphrey said the owner of an auto parts store where he stopped will testify during the trial that Smith “appeared normal to him that day.”

As he continued north on I-5, Smith started feeling tired. He looked for somewhere to park and “call it a day,” Humphrey said.

By 2 p.m., the sun was shining and the roads were dry.

Smith knew a rest stop was close by and switched lanes to exit. 

“He missed it because he fell asleep,” Humphrey said. “When he woke up, he collided with the van that was parked on the side of the road.”

A home health nurse was driving from a client’s house when she saw a semi truck swerve to the side of the road, over-correct into the left lane and nearly hit a Jeep in the left lane. 

She then watched the truck go off the road again and continue driving.

Meantime, 11 farmworkers were heading to homes in the Salem and Woodburn area. Garcia-Garcia had just pulled the van carrying 10 of his coworkers who had been working on a farm that day to the side of the interstate. 

He got out to check on a trailer attached to the back of the van when he saw a semi truck coming toward them on the side of the road, “going full-speed ahead,” Spooner said.

As he ran out of the way, the truck hit the back of the van. His brother, Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30, of Salem, and his nephew, Luis E. Gomez-Reyes, 30, of Woodburn, were among the passengers killed in the crash.

Three passengers – Jose Eduardo Solis Flores, Maria Flores-Martinez and Ibis Torres-Rangel – were seriously injured and “continue to suffer physical injuries to this day,” Spooner said. The Oregon State Police said after the crash that Garcia-Garcia suffered “minor” physical injuries.

Smith was not seriously injured.

At the scene, Smith told police that he had not taken any drugs or drank alcohol. 

An officer noted that his pupils were constricted and his eyes were bloodshot. Smith also reported feeling dizzy and had a difficult time recalling information such as his phone number or where was earlier that day.

When the officer arrived at the scene, “he was thrust into the middle of this chaos,” Humphrey said.

Because Smith was sweating, dizzy and unable to concentrate after the crash, she said, the officer believed he was “under the influence of something.”

But a paramedic and a hospital nurse both found that he “could not have been under the influence,” Humphrey said.

“A person under the influence exhibits certain signs. These signs cannot be faked. These signs cannot be manipulated,” Humphrey said. “A person can only be under the influence of a drug for so long.”

When the officer told Smith at the hospital that seven people had died in the crash, Smith “was clearly and visibly devastated by this news and said he wished he had died too,” Humphrey wrote in a court filing.

The officer found a vial in Smith’s pocket. Smith said it contained meth and admitted that he had used the drug a day earlier.

Spooner said in court that hospital records showed he tested positive for cocaine, meth and fentanyl.

“Mr. Smith chose to use methamphetamines the day before he was driving through the state of Oregon on I-5,” she said. “He was driving at highway speeds on the side of the road.”

The trial, overseen by Marion County Circuit Judge Daniel Wren, is scheduled to conclude by Feb. 4.

Correction: An earlier version incorrectly spelled the city of Sutherlin. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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