Orphaned Teen Gets $65 Million After Mom’s Death In ‘Horrific’ Crash While Driving Home From Water Park

A trip to a water park ended in tragedy for one 10-year-old boy, after his mother was killed in a crash while driving them home. Now 14, the teen was just awarded $65 million in a wrongful death case.

The fatal incident went down on August 8, 2022, as Megan Arneson drove her son home from Water World in Colorado. According to a press release from Dulin McQuinn Young, LLP, the law firm representing the teen, Arneson was a single mom and preschool teacher. She had surprised her son with the trip and took a day off from work to bring him to the park.

At the same time, a tractor-trailer hauling an excavator drove under an overpass, with the arm of the excavator hitting the bridge and “causing a cloud of dust and concrete debris” to fall onto the road.

Per the now-teen’s attorneys, “a large piece of concrete impaled the windshield of the Arneson vehicle striking Megan Arneson on the head, causing the Arneson vehicle to careen off the roadway.” She died at the scene while her son called for help.

The teen is now being raised by his grandparents, according to the Loveland Reporter Herald, with the law firm saying he was “orphaned after a horrific trucking crash involving the reckless transportation of an improperly loaded excavator on I-25 in 2022.”

The tractor trailer was being driven by Darnell Yingling for Import Auto Inc., just four days after he received a license allowing him to transport heavy equipment on his own, per attorneys.

The press release stated that the Colorado State Patrol concluded the excavator was improperly loaded on to the trailer, with the attorneys alleging that “Yingling’s reckless conduct and decision-making caused Megan’s death, and that Import Auto had failed to properly train Yingling and had failed to inspect the load prior to transport.”

A jury agreed, and awarded the teen $65 million. The sum, according to Dulin McQuinn Young, is the largest in Colorado history for a trucking crash.

According to the Loveland Reporter Herald, Yingling pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide-reckless driving in 2023 and was sentenced the following year to four years in community corrections, also known as a “halfway house.” He was also given 300 hours of community service.

The firm representing Import Auto Inc, meanwhile, reportedly told the outlet that “what happened to Arneson was a tragic accident and the only one the company has had in its more than 35 years in business.”