A Rio Arriba County jury handed down a $47 million verdict Friday to a military veteran left bedridden and unable to speak after a head-on collision with a commercial tanker truck on NM Highway 128 near Carlsbad, one of the largest nonfatal truck-crash awards in New Mexico history. Austin Drewry was 21 years old and driving eastbound on a foggy November night in 2022 when a westbound tanker crossed into his path, according to court filings. His mother, Crystal Drewry, now his full-time caregiver, shared in the award alongside her son.
The verdict came after a trial in Tierra Amarilla before District Judge Francis Mathew, part of the case Austin Drewry Jackson et al. v. Marcos Alejandro Romero et al., Case No. D-117-CV-2024-00410, in the First Judicial District Court, according to court docket records from the First Judicial District Court of New Mexico. As the Santa Fe New Mexican reports, Crystal Drewry and her son's court-appointed co-conservator filed the lawsuit in 2024 against Pilot Thomas Logistics LLC and Maxum Petroleum Operating Co., alleging the truck driver traveled too fast for the weather and failed to recognize and respond to Drewry's vehicle.
A Settlement Offer Rejected
The truck driver was employed by Pilot Thomas Logistics, a fuel and lubricant company headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, per the same report. Judge Mathew later dismissed the driver himself as a party in the case. Deposition testimony cited in the Santa Fe New Mexican's reporting showed the driver was traveling above the posted 55 mph speed limit and that Pilot Thomas Logistics had previously disciplined him for speeding.
Before trial, Pilot Thomas Logistics and Maxum Petroleum Operating Co. offered $100,000 to settle, according to attorney James Tawney, cited in the same reporting. The plaintiffs refused that offer, the outlet notes. A spokesperson for Pilot Thomas Logistics did not respond to a request for comment, per the same account.
Lasting Injuries and a Mother's Vigil
The crash left Austin Drewry with traumatic brain injuries, damage to his spinal cord, bones and internal organs, and a permanent need for round-the-clock care, according to the complaint. He was transported from Carlsbad Medical Center to a trauma center in El Paso and coded twice in 2023. Tawney told the paper that Drewry is now bedridden and unable to talk or function independently.
Drewry, who served in the Louisiana National Guard and worked in the oilfield, had been planning to return home to Mangham, Louisiana, for Thanksgiving when the crash happened, the newspaper reports. Crystal Drewry said the jury award would provide her son with needed things, and said he will be cared for even after her own death. Tawney described the verdict as justice for Austin and his mother, and said it signals that New Mexicans value human life.
A Highway Known for Danger
NM Highway 128, where the collision occurred, has carried a grim nickname among local residents for years. New Mexico Department of Transportation crash data recorded 831 vehicle accidents and 40 fatalities along the highway between 2012 and 2021, leading drivers to call the two-lane oilfield corridor Killer 128, according to the Hobbs News-Sun. State officials designated the 50-mile stretch an official New Mexico Safety Corridor in 2019, doubling statutory fines for speeding, reckless driving, and moving violations, the outlet reported.
Even with that designation, enforcement data show persistent violations along the route. During a five-day safety operation on NM 128 in September 2024, the Lea County Sheriff's Office conducted 355 traffic stops and issued 370 citations, mostly for speeding, improper lane usage, and illegal passing, according to the Hobbs News-Sun's reporting. The broader Permian Basin oilfield region spanning West Texas and southeastern New Mexico averages roughly 450 traffic fatalities a year, with nearly half of those crashes involving heavy commercial vehicles, according to McFarlane Law.
New Mexico's Wider Crash Crisis
The state's road safety problems extend well beyond one highway. New Mexico recorded 437 fatal motor vehicle crashes in 2023, a statewide fatality rate of 20.7 per 100,000 residents that is more than double the national rate of 9.6, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. A state labor and environmental review reported by High Country News found that New Mexico's oilfield support industry accounts for a disproportionate share of severe workplace and transit injuries, while state labor regulators conduct fewer than 25 random unannounced safety inspections annually across nearly 400 operating companies.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show Pilot Thomas Logistics operated a fleet of 314 power units and 412 drivers, undergoing 347 vehicle and driver inspections in the 24 months preceding September 2026, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The company held an active federal operating permit under USDOT number 1936338 and carried a Satisfactory federal safety rating assigned in June 2015, the agency's records show.
Why the Case Landed in Tierra Amarilla
The crash happened near Carlsbad in Eddy County, yet the trial unfolded hundreds of miles north in Rio Arriba County. Under New Mexico Statutes Section 38-3-1, civil venue rules allow personal injury plaintiffs to bring transitory actions against foreign corporations in any district court in the state, a provision cited by Justia Law that explains why a southern oilfield crash could be tried in a northern New Mexico courthouse.
