Jury awards $44 million to widow of man killed in 2021 pileup on Interstate 35
A Mississippi trucking company must pay $44 million to the widow of a man killed in a February 2021 pileup on Interstate Highway 35, a Dallas County jury ruled Friday.
Christopher Ray Vardy, 49, of Boyd, was driving in the southbound lanes of the I-35 TEXpress section on Feb. 11, 2021, during that year’s ice storm, according to a statement.
Vardy was killed when an 18-wheeler, owned by New Prime Inc. and driven by Steven Ridder, rear-ended Vardy’s vehicle as it was stopped due to the crashes ahead.
Heavy machinery was required to find and pull Vardy from the wreckage, attorneys said.
Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Ridder had never received training for driving in winter weather, according to the statement. Vardy’s attorneys also argued that Ridder had been speeding just before the crash.
First responders said they had never seen a vehicle as extensively damaged as Vardy’s, according to other documents filed with the lawsuit.
The verdict specifies $24.1 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages due to gross negligence, and places 75% of the liability on Ridder, according to the statement.
Vardy’s wife, Tamara, was the superintendent of Boyd ISD at the time of the crash and resigned prior to the 2022-2023 school year, according to the Wise County Messenger.
The case is the first case connected to the pileup to go to trial, attorneys said. Five other people were killed in the 130-car pileup.
Similar lawsuit alleges toll operator among the negligent
A lawsuit filed in Tarrant County by the widow of another crash victim, 45-year-old Aaron Watson, alleges that the operator of the TEXpress lanes is also among those at fault for the crash.
That suit names as defendants the Texas Department of Transportation, NTE Mobility Partners, various companies and drivers operating tractor-trailers involved in the crash, and people driving other kinds of vehicles.
Individual drivers are guilty of committing negligent acts that “contributed to cause a catastrophic vehicular chain reaction,” according to that lawsuit. Commercial trucking companies and drivers are accused of failing to pay attention or maintain safe speeds.
Entities responsible for managing the tollway did not adequately monitor or maintain the roadway leading up to the crash, according to that lawsuit.
North Tarrant Express Mobility Partners applied a brine solution to the roadway 44 hours before the collisions, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report.
“In the days before the crash, the area had experienced 36 consecutive hours of below freezing temperatures,” according to the report. “In anticipation of forecast freezing rain and sleet, NTE Mobility Partners Segments 3 (NTEMP S3) reported that they had pretreated the traffic lanes with an Ice Slicer NM brine solution. The solution was applied to the two southbound toll lanes in the vicinity of the crash on February 9 at 10:12 a.m.”
The National Transportation Safety Board in its official report on the incident said NTE’s failure to monitor and treat the icy roads contributed to the pileup.
This story was originally published December 12, 2025 at 9:53 PM.
