New Mexico jury awards $47 million to pickup driver and his mother in 2022 tanker crash case

A New Mexico jury has awarded $47 million to a pickup truck driver and his mother in their lawsuit over a 2022 head-on collision with a commercial tanker truck, according to FreightWaves on Oct. 19.

The award went to Austin Drewry Jackson, who was 21 at the time of the crash, and his mother, Crystal Gayle Drewry, against Pilot Thomas Logistics LLC and Maxum Petroleum Operating Company. FreightWaves reported the $47 million verdict is among the largest reported trucking accident awards in New Mexico in recent years, and it follows a separate $104 million jury award in July against Mesilla Valley Transportation in a fatal truck crash lawsuit in Texas — another of the so-called nuclear verdicts, jury awards exceeding $10 million, that are driving trucking insurance costs.

The November 2022 crash happened on a two-lane highway near Carlsbad, New Mexico. According to an Oct. 13 blog post from the plaintiffs' attorneys at Tawney, Acosta & Chaparro P.C., the firm alleged the commercial tanker truck driver was traveling too fast for weather conditions and failed to see or react to Drewry's approaching vehicle before the head-on collision. Drewry suffered severe traumatic brain injuries along with extensive damage to his spine, bones and internal organs, the firm said. A Louisiana native who joined the Louisiana National Guard at age 18 and served on two deployments, he was working on an oil rig in New Mexico when the collision occurred and had planned to return home for Thanksgiving. "The defense's first pretrial offer of $100,000 did not come close to acknowledging the harm Austin suffered or the care he will need," James Tawney, a partner at the firm, said in a statement. A 2025 American Transportation Research Institute study found that allegations of speeding and other pre-crash negligence can significantly increase jury awards against trucking companies.

Court records reviewed by FreightWaves show the lawsuit, Austin Drewry Jackson et al. v. Pilot Thomas Logistics LLC et al., was filed April 26, 2024, under Case No. D-117-CV-2024-00161 and heard in the First Judicial District Court in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, before District Judge Francis J. Mathew. Jury selection began Oct. 5, and the docket lists a special verdict form filed Oct. 13. The court granted a motion on Oct. 7 dismissing the claims against truck driver Marcos Alejandro Romero in his individual capacity, with prejudice, so the case proceeded against the corporate defendants, and on Oct. 9 the defendants filed motions challenging the plaintiffs' claims involving punitive damages, direct negligence, proximate cause and loss of consortium.

The publicly available docket does not specify how the $47 million was allocated among damages categories or whether punitive damages were included, and as of Oct. 19 it listed no separately entered final judgment or notice of appeal.