The family of a 59-year-old woman who died when an oncoming driver crashed head-on into the car she and her family were traveling in has filed a $111 million lawsuit against both the driver and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
The lawsuit faults the state for failing to install median highway dividers that the suit claims likely would have prevented the crash on Highway 26 between Cannon Beach and Portland.
The crash killed Vancouver, Wash., resident Michelle Moussan and badly injured her ex-husband, Bassam Moussan, 62; their son, Matthew Moussan, 34; and their daughter, Whitne Moussan, 30.
In addition to damages for Moussan’s death, the lawsuit also seeks compensation for the three surviving Moussans, who suffered extensive injuries, including broken spines, rib fractures and collapsed lungs.
The family visited Cannon Beach earlier on May 24, 2025, for a memorial for another daughter of Michelle and Bassam Moussan’s. She had died a year earlier, according to the suit.
Highway 26 is a popular route for Portland-area residents taking day or weekend trips to the coast. Parts of the mostly two-lane highway are also frequent sites for accidents, the suit says.
The lawsuit states that from 2020 to 2024, there were 22 crashes in the two-mile section of roadway near Milepost 31 that includes the Moussan crash site. Six involved serious injuries and three involved fatalities, according to the suit. Three of the collisions were head-on, though the suit doesn’t say whether those resulted in any deaths.
The Oregon Department of Transportation declined to comment for this story.
Securing sizable settlements from the state because of the absence of median barriers is not unheard of.
In 2015, the state paid Amanda Fritz, who was a Portland city commissioner at the time, a $1.45 million settlement after her husband died when a pickup truck traveling in the opposite direction on Interstate 5 near Salem crossed the grassy median and slammed into his sedan head-on in 2014. The state also paid $750,000 to the family of a passenger in the sedan after she died.
The Oregon Department of Transportation had delayed installing cable median barriers along that five-mile stretch of I-5 despite public recognition of the need dating back to 1996. After the crash, the state Legislature expedited the installation of barriers along 100 miles of freeway, including that section of freeway.
The Highway 26 suit, which was filed earlier this month, says that the Moussans’ eastbound car was traveling at the speed limit of 55 miles per hour when it was struck by the car of another driver, 64-year-old Fred Camino of Seattle. Camino was traveling west.
Camino couldn’t be reached for comment.
The suit claims that rumble strips that the state set into the pavement between opposing lanes of the highway were in “poor condition … lessening their effectiveness.” A Google Maps photo from 2023 shows that the rumble strips at that time were heavily worn.
The Moussans’ car spun around and careened down an embankment. Michelle Moussan died at the scene.
The car Camino was driving came to a stop on the highway. He and a passenger also suffered serious injuries.
In addition to the Oregon Department of Transportation and Camino, the lawsuit lists as defendants Toyota and Nissan, which were the makers of the cars involved in the crash.
Camino was driving a 2025 Toyota RAV4, and Bassam Moussan was driving a 2025 Nissan Sentra. The suit claims that accident prevention technology, such as automatic steering and braking systems, should have prevented the crash or lessened its impact.
A representative from Toyota declined to comment. Nissan said it was aware of the suit but couldn’t comment on its specifics.
“This was a tragic incident, and our thoughts are with the Moussan family and all those impacted,” read a company statement.
