Nearly two years after 17-year-old Mai Grace Tankersley died in a crash on Beaverton’s narrow Tile Flat Road, her father has filed a $39 million lawsuit accusing local and state agencies of failing to address dangerous road conditions. The complaint argues that cramped lanes, almost nonexistent shoulders and years of warnings helped turn a routine drive home into a fatal one.
David Tankersley filed the lawsuit last Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court against the city of Beaverton, Washington County and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The case also names Stellantis N.V. and FCA US, with OregonLive reporting that the suit raises claims about both the roadway and the 2005 Jeep Wrangler Tankersley was driving.
Tankersley was killed on July 25, 2024, after her Jeep left the roadway, struck a large tree and rolled over in the 19000 block of Southwest Tile Flat Road. The Beaverton Police Department said at the time that drugs and alcohol were not suspected, while investigators had not determined what caused the crash or how fast the Jeep was traveling.
The Lawsuit Targets Tile Flat Road’s Tight Design
According to the lawsuit, the northbound lane measured just 8 feet 6 inches wide, while the lanes overall were roughly 9 to 10 feet wide. The filing says Tankersley was traveling at the unposted 55-mph limit when she lost control on a slight curve, and that the Jeep’s passenger-side wheels dropped onto a gravel shoulder only about 6 inches wide before the vehicle veered back into traffic and hit the tree, as detailed by OregonLive.
The complaint also points to a 4-inch-wide fog line, a lack of roadside barriers and a crash history it says included 36 injury crashes from 2008 through 2022. It alleges that state standards called for 12-foot lanes, while local requirements called for shoulders far wider than the strip of gravel beside the northbound lane.
The road’s safety problems have been part of the broader South Cooper Mountain growth debate. In October 2024, resident Ron Anderson told the Beaverton Planning Commission that Tile Flat traffic and delayed improvements remained serious concerns; county staff said the road is a county arterial and that some upgrades would be tied to future development.
Washington County has planned to widen Tile Flat Road between the urban growth boundary and Scholls Ferry Road to three motor-vehicle lanes, adding bicycle and pedestrian improvements. But the county’s project page says the design was placed on hold in May 2025 while county and Beaverton officials reconsidered the scope after the urban growth boundary expanded and development-related improvements changed the project’s assumptions.
The $39 Million Demand Now Moves Into Civil Court
The lawsuit seeks compensation from the public agencies and the Jeep’s manufacturers, alleging that the road’s design and the vehicle’s protective bars failed to keep Tankersley safe. The defendants have not been found liable, and the $39 million figure is the family’s demand—not a judgment or settlement.
The case will now examine whether the roadway’s condition, the crash history, the vehicle’s design or some combination of factors contributed to Tankersley’s death. For her family, the filing is also an attempt to force a long-running safety dispute onto the legal record while the road’s larger fix remains unfinished.
