Trucking companies embroiled in lawsuits over crash that killed 7 farmworkers

The estates of seven farmworkers killed in a 2023 collision and three survivors are suing several trucking companies and the semi-truck driver who crashed into their van.

Four lawsuits filed between October 2023 and February 2025 in Multnomah County Circuit Court vary slightly in the focus of their allegations and collectively seek up to $502 million in damages.

The crash on May 18, 2023, occurred after Adan Garcia-Garcia, the driver of the van carrying the farmworkers, pulled to the side of Interstate 5 just south of Salem and stepped out to check on an attached trailer. Lincoln C. Smith, plowed his Freightliner semi truck into the van, crumpling it into another semi truck.

Smith, 54, of Sacramento, was sentenced on March 4 to 48 years in prison.

A jury on Feb. 5 found Smith guilty of seven counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of third-degree assault and reckless driving. He was acquitted of a single charge of driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Jurors found Smith was driving recklessly when he fell asleep at the wheel and caused the crash, but was not impaired by the methamphetamine and cocaine he admitted to using the night before.

The legal saga of one of the most horrific collisions to ever occur in Marion County continues as the victims and their families seek justice through the civil system.

The lawsuits’ key claims: 

*Trucking companies J.B. Poindexter & Co, Leer Group and Waypoint Logistics were negligent in hiring a driver, Lincoln Smith, with a history of criminal conduct and drug use.

*Smith was under the influence of drugs and sleep-deprived when he fell asleep at the wheel and caused the deadly crash.

*A driver for another trucking company, C.R. England, parked a tractor trailer on the freeway without using hazard lights or other warning devices before the driver of the farmworker van pulled over behind it. When the crash occurred, the van crumpled into the trailer.

*Manufacturer Freightliner Trucks, which designed the truck driven by Smith, left it with defects that didn’t allow it to automatically slow or stop if the driver was approaching another vehicle.

*West Coast Beet, the company that the farmworkers contracted with, failed to provide them adequate safety training. The company also failed to provide adequate bathrooms at their fields, prompting farmworkers to attach a portable toilet to the van and pull over to check on it just before the crash occurred.

The victims who were killed:

*Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30, of Salem

*Juan Carlos Leyva-Carrillo, 37, of Woodburn

*Gabriel Juarez-Tovilla, 59, of Woodburn

*Alejandra Espinoza Carpio, 39, of Woodburn

*Eduardo “Eddye” Alfonso Lopez-Lopez, 32, of Gervais

*Luis Enrique Gomez-Reyes, 30, of Woodburn

*Alejandro Jimenez-Hernandez, 36, of Gervais

Attorney Melissa Bobadilla filed the most recent lawsuit over the farmworkers’ deaths on Feb. 19 on behalf of five who were killed and two survivors. Bobadilla told Salem Reporter that suits have now been filed on behalf of every person who was killed or injured in the crash.

She said the deadly crash has profoundly impacted the victims, their families and the community. 

“It goes without saying this was an unimaginable tragedy that was beyond preventable,” said attorney James Healy, who is representing Espinoza Carpio’s estate.

Healy told Salem Reporter that it’s difficult for Espinoza Carpio’s husband, Francisco, to put into words how her loss has impacted their family.

Francisco, speaking through a Spanish interpreter at the sentencing hearing, said that his heart and soul are “completely destroyed.” 

Espinoza Carpio was an engineer by trade, and the couple came from Mexico to the U.S. for a better life. Those dreams are now gone, her husband said at the hearing.

Their son was one and half years old at the time of his mother’s death. “Their son has forever been deprived the opportunity to experience the unique and unconditional love one receives only from their biological mother,” Healy said in an email.

Ibis Torres Rangel, who survived the crash, suffered multiple fractures to his ribs, vertebra, sternum, leg and arm, a dislocated shoulder joint, internal bleeding and injuries to his lungs, liver and kidney, according to his attorney, Keith Dozier.

“It is a miracle he survived,” Dozier said in an email. “Ibis has undergone multiple surgeries and suffers from continuous physical pain. However, I believe, for him by far the worst part is being haunted by thoughts of the crash and the tragic loss of his friends.”

He said Torres Rangel has yet to return to work for “numerous physical and psychological reasons.”

Attorneys representing the other victims and defendants either did not respond to requests for comment or said they could not comment in time for publication.

Maria Flores-Martinez, who also survived, used a walker to approach the judge at the sentencing hearing, telling him through a Spanish interpreter that the crash left her with “a total disability.”

Flores-Martinez spent nine days in a coma after the crash. She said at the hearing that she lost an artery in her neck, which now has no mobility. Her upper back is numb. She lives with metal plates in her head.

Another survivor, Jose E. Solis-Flores, suffered injuries including facial and liver lacerations and fractures to his face, eye and sinus, according to his lawsuit. 

Reconstructive surgery left him with a metal plate underneath the skin on his face. “The simple tasks in life became monumental for me,” he said at the hearing, speaking through a Spanish interpreter.

Adan Garcia-Garcia, the driver of the van carrying the farmworkers, narrowly avoided physical injury but said at the hearing that he remains haunted by the loss of his brother and nephew in the crash.

Court records indicated that restitution for the victims and their families in the criminal case had not been decided as of Thursday afternoon.

J. Ruiz Farm Labor Contractor, which owned the van that carried the farmworkers, also sued Waypoint Logistics, J.B. Poindexter and Smith on Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court. That civil complaint seeks $10,000 for what it described as permanent damage to the van caused by the crash.

RELATED COVERAGE:

Trucker gets 48 years for causing crash that killed 7 farmworkers

Trucker convicted of manslaughter, felony assault for crash that killed 7 farmworkers

Fate of trucker who killed 7 Marion County farmworkers lies with jurors

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

Police identify farm workers killed in Marion County crash

UPDATE: Police say semitruck driver plowed into van on I-5, killing 7

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

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