Truck driver in crash that killed 7 farmworkers in Oregon is sentenced to 48 years

SALEM, Ore. — A truck driver who killed seven farmworkers when he crashed into a parked van on Interstate 5 in Oregon was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 50 years in prison.

Marion County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Wren sentenced Lincoln Smith to 48 years and 3 months, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

He was convicted in February on seven counts of second-degree manslaughter and three counts of assault, as well as reckless driving. Jurors acquitted the 54-year-old Californian of driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Testifying at trial, Smith said the effects of drugs he took the night before the crash had worn off and he nodded off at the wheel. Traces of methamphetamine, fentanyl and morphine were found in his blood after the crash.

The crash, one of the state’s deadliest, happened in May 2023. Smith’s semitruck ran into a van carrying 11 farmworkers that was parked on the side of I-5 near Albany, in an agricultural area of the Willamette Valley.

The victims were identified as Juan Carlos Leyva-Carrillo, 37; Gabriel Juarez-Tovilla, 58; Alejandra Espinoza-Carpio, 39; Eduardo Lopez-Lopez, 31; Luis Enrique Gomez-Reyes, 30; Alejandro Jimenez-Hernandez, 36; and Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30.

Smith apologized in court, saying that if he could trade his life for any of the victims’ lives, he would, KGW-TV reported.

Albany is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Portland. I-5 is the main north-south interstate on the West Coast.