The estate of a 38-year-old man who was one of seven farm workers who died when the passenger van he was in was sandwiched between two semitrucks along Interstate 5 filed a lawsuit this week seeking more than $20 million.
The estate of Juan Carlos Leyva Carrillo appears to be the only lawsuit filed against the truck drivers and their employers since the May 2023 crash in Marion County.
According to the lawsuit and details alleged in a criminal case against one of the truck drivers: The first truck driver allegedly pulled over to eat lunch while parked on the shoulder of I-5 at about 2 p.m. The Ford passenger van carrying Carrillo and his co-workers pulled up behind it to adjust a portable toilet it was hauling. Then a second truck driver who was allegedly high on drugs plowed into the back of the van. Four people in or around the van survived, while seven died. All of the dead had ties to Mexico.
The suit faults the first truck driver, Eduard Netesov of Gresham, for stopping on the freeway’s shoulder instead of at a rest stop and for allegedly failing to turn on his hazard lights while cars and trucks whizzed by. The suit also faults the second truck driver, Lincoln Clayton Smith, who is accused of driving under the influence of intoxicants, manslaughter and other charges. His criminal case is still pending.
The suit lists the truckers and their employers as defendants. According to the lawsuit, those employers are C.R. England, J.B. Poindexter & Co., Leer Group and Waypoint Logistics.
None of the defendants could be reached immediately for comment.
The crash was one of the deadliest in recent Oregon history. Those who perished were between the ages of 30 and 60. They had wrapped up work weeding a beet field near Albany earlier that day and were headed to another field when they momentarily stopped on the shoulder and were killed.
Leyva Carrillo, whose estate filed the lawsuit, arrived in Woodburn in 2019 and wired money weekly to his four children in Mexico. He dreamed of saving up to buy a ranchito, a few cows and a horse.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Portland attorney Douglas Angell.
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