Robert Gene Mayfield was arraigned today in Linn County Circuit Court on multiple charges, including manslaughter, in connection to the crash that killed Sweet Home log truck driver Neil Nightingale three years ago.
Mayfield, 57, appeared before Judge Thomas A. McHill to be arraigned on first-degree manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, third-degree assault and fourth-degree assault based on a secret indictment filed Dec. 18.
According to state police reports on the Jan. 21, 2016 crash, a 1998 International utility truck driven by Mayfield, then 54 and formerly of Sweet Home, was westbound on Highway 20 near milepost Highway 20 milepost 21, near the Santiam Lumber Mill, when it crossed the center turn lane and collided head on with a 2011 Kenworth log truck operated by Nightingale, 39, of Sweet Home. A 2003 Suburu Legacy, driven by David Briggs of Lebanon, was also eastbound and collided with the log truck after the initial crash.
Both Mayfield and Nightingale were critically injured in the crash. Mayfield was taken by helicopter to Salem Hospital, and Nightingale was taken by helicopter to Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis. Nightingale died Jan. 29, 2016. Mayfield survived following multiple surgeries.
Mayfield and Papé Machinery, Inc., settled a civil suit out of court in October. Details of the settlement are not public.
Nightingale’s widow, Tamera Nightingale, acting as personal representative of Nightingale’s estate, filed the wrongful death lawsuit Feb. 7, 2017 against Mayfield and Papé Machinery.
The complaint, seeking more than $100 million in damages, accused Mayfield of negligence and causing injury and death of Nightingale by failing to keep a proper lookout, failing to maintain proper control over his own vehicle, operating a vehicle in the wrong lane of traffic, operating a vehicle in a manner that endangered or would likely endanger a person or property, operating a vehicle at an unreasonable speed and operating a vehicle while under the influence of marijuana.
Last February, Judge Fay Stetz-Waters approved a motion by Nightingale attorneys to add an allegation that he “was using a mobile phone illegally immediately before the crash.”
In his response, Mayfield denied the allegations and denied that “he was negligent or that he contributed to the cause of the accident.”
Based on the conclusions of a Linn County Grand Jury on Aug. 24, 2016, the Linn County District Attorney’s Office declined to issue any criminal charges based on the collision.
In the Dec. 18 indictment, Mayfield is accused of first-degree manslaughter, a class A felony, for unlawfully and recklessly causing the death of another human being, Nightingale, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life; second-degree manslaughter, a class B felony, for unlawfully and recklessly causing the death of another human being, Nightingale; criminally negligent homicide, a class B felony, for unlawfully and with criminal negligence causing the death of another human being, Nightingale; third-degree assault, a class C felony, for unlawfully and recklessly causing serious physical injury to another person, Briggs, by means of a dangerous weapon, a motor vehicle operating at highway speeds; and fourth-degree assault, a class A misdemeanor, for unlawfully and recklessly causing physical injury to another person, Briggs.