The Wabash Lawsuit: Verdict, Reduction, and 2025 Settlement

The Wabash lawsuit ended in October 2025 with a confidential settlement, closing out a case that had produced a $462 million St. Louis jury verdict in September 2024 over a fatal truck underride crash. A judge later cut the punitive damages from $450 million to $108 million, and Wabash National Corporation ultimately paid $30 million out of pocket, with insurance covering the rest. The company did not admit liability.¹²

The Crash That Started the Case

On May 19, 2019, around 2:30 in the afternoon, a Volkswagen CC carrying 30-year-old Taron Tailor and 23-year-old Nicholas Perkins struck the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed for traffic on an Interstate 55 exit ramp near downtown St. Louis. The car slid underneath the trailer. Both men were killed. Tailor’s wife was pregnant at the time. Perkins left a two-year-old daughter.³⁴

The trailer was a 2004 model built by Wabash National. Its rear impact guard used a two-post design that met the federal minimum standard in effect at the time, which required protection in rear-end collisions up to 30 miles per hour.⁵

What the Families Argued

The families filed suit in St. Louis Circuit Court (Case No. 2022-CC00495), represented by John M. Simon of the Simon Law Firm along with attorneys from Cantor Injury Law and Brown & Crouppen.⁶ The theory of the case was that Wabash knew a stronger guard existed, could have built it, and chose the cheaper version.

The plaintiffs pointed to a four-post rear impact guard used in Canada that was roughly twice as strong as the American version, and to Wabash’s own RIG-16 four-post guard, which the company introduced as an option in 2016. By 2022, according to trial testimony, 90 to 95 percent of trailers Wabash produced still carried the older two-post design.⁷⁸

In closing, Simon told the jury that outfitting every trailer with a stronger guard would have cost roughly $15 million a year, and framed the $450 million punitive figure as approximately what Wabash saved over three decades by sticking with the older design.³

Plaintiffs also introduced decades of documents from the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association, arguing that Wabash and other manufacturers had lobbied against tougher federal rear-guard standards and used confidentiality agreements to keep underride data quiet. Some exhibits predated Wabash’s 1985 founding, including a 1969 letter from the TTMA to the Federal Highway Administration and a 1971 New York Times article. Although the case was argued with a conspiracy framing, no conspiracy claim was formally submitted to the jury.⁹⁷

Wabash’s Defense

Wabash argued the 2004 trailer met every federal safety rule in effect when it was built. Kristin Glazner, the company’s General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer, said “no rear impact guard or trailer safety technology has ever existed that would have made a difference here,” arguing that no guard could have prevented the deaths at the collision speed.³

The company tried to introduce contributory negligence evidence, including that Tailor’s blood alcohol level was 0.081 and that neither occupant was wearing a seatbelt. The trial judge excluded the blood alcohol evidence as prejudicial and ruled against admitting the seatbelt evidence. The jury assigned 65 percent of the fault to Wabash and 35 percent to Tailor. Wabash’s objection to the pre-1985 industry documents was overruled.¹⁰⁹

The $462 Million Verdict

On September 5, 2024, after a 2023 trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial, a St. Louis jury before Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh found Wabash liable for product liability, negligence, and civil conspiracy. The award was $12 million in compensatory damages and $450 million in punitive damages, for a total of $462 million.⁹⁶

Missouri’s Senate Bill 591, enacted in August 2020, caps punitive damages. Because the Wabash suit was filed before that law took effect, the caps did not apply, leaving the $450 million punitive award unconstrained by statute.¹¹

How the Judge Cut the Award

On March 20, 2025, Judge McGraugh reduced the punitive damages from $450 million to $108 million. He called the original award “grossly excessive” and a violation of Wabash’s constitutional rights, finding that it exceeded “fair and reasonable compensation for the plaintiff’s damages, the aggravating or mitigating circumstances, and the degree of malice behind Wabash’s conduct.” He applied Missouri guidelines weighing reprehensibility, the ratio between compensatory and punitive damages, and comparable penalties.¹²¹³

The judge denied Wabash’s motion for a new trial and its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Compensatory damages, reported at $11.5 million in court filings, were unchanged. Total judgment: $119.5 million.¹³

The October 2025 Settlement

Rather than appeal, Wabash settled. In an SEC filing dated October 9, 2025, the company disclosed a confidential agreement under which it would pay $30 million out of pocket, with insurance covering the balance. Wabash recognized an $81.2 million reduction to the charge it had booked in the third quarter of 2024, reversing an $11.5 million insurance receivable and a $122.7 million liability. The settlement stated it was not an admission of liability or wrongdoing, and the plaintiffs agreed to drop all further legal challenges.¹²¹⁴

The Rear Guard Rules in the Background

Two federal standards frame the underride debate. FMVSS No. 223 sets strength and energy-absorption requirements for rear impact guards. FMVSS No. 224 requires that new trailers and semitrailers over 10,000 pounds carry a compliant guard.¹⁵

The 1996 originals were built around 30-mph impacts. Canada moved to a 35-mph standard in 2007. NHTSA finalized a similar upgrade in July 2022, requiring protection at 35 mph for full-width and 50-percent-overlap crashes. Safety groups have pushed for 30-percent-overlap protection as well, arguing that many guards fail in that scenario because there is no vertical support at the point of impact. NHTSA has declined that requirement, calling it not cost-effective.¹⁶

Legislation Still Pending

On February 6, 2026, a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Stop Underrides Act 2.0. The bill would require NHTSA to finalize rules mandating side underride guards on new commercial trucks, reconvene the Department of Transportation’s Advisory Committee on Underride Protection, and commission new studies on how often underride crashes occur and how they are reported. It was referred to committee and remained pending as of early 2026.¹⁷

1
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Wabash National Corporation Form 8-K
2
Trucking Dive. Wabash Settlement, Missouri Legal Case
3
Trucking Dive. Wabash Underride Verdict
4
Simon Law Firm. Jury Renders $462 Million Verdict to Families of Victims of Fatal Truck Underride Crash
5
Trucking Info. Wabash Underride Verdict
6
Missouri Lawyers Media. Jury Returns $462M Verdict in Underride Crash That Killed Two Fathers
7
Walsworth Digital Editions. Wabash’s $462M Verdict
8
Corporate Crime Reporter. Marianne Karth on the $462 Million Jury Verdict Against Wabash
9
Landline Media. Wabash Takes $462M Hit in Underride Crash Case
10
Landline Media. Court Slashes Wabash’s Massive Nuclear Verdict, Denies New Trial
11
Lashly & Baer. Wabash’s $462M Verdict: A Landmark Case
12
FreightWaves. Punitive Damages in Huge Wabash Judgment Slashed but Still Over $100M
13
The Indiana Lawyer. Judge Slashes Punitive Damages Awarded by Jury in Case Against Wabash
14
FreightWaves. Trailer Manufacturer Wabash’s Nuclear Verdict Lawsuit Settled
15
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Final Rule, FMVSS 223 and 224, Rear Impact Protection
16
Federal Register. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards: Rear Impact Guards, Rear Impact Protection
17
Office of Rep. Deborah Ross. Ross, Gillibrand, Luján, Cohen, DeSaulnier Introduce Legislation to Protect Drivers From Fatal Tractor-Trailer Truck Accidents