SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon jury has found a semitruck driver guilty of manslaughter in a 2023 collision on Interstate 5 that killed seven farmworkers and injured several others in one of the state’s deadliest highway crashes .
Lincoln Smith, 54, of California, was convicted Wednesday on seven charges of second-degree manslaughter , three charges of third-degree assault and reckless driving. But Marion County jurors acquitted Smith of driving under the influence after defense attorneys argued Smith was not acting recklessly and was attempting to find parking when he became tired.
The collision occurred on May 18, 2023, when Smith’s semitruck veered off the highway near Albany, Oregon, an agricultural area about 25 miles south of Salem. The 53-foot, 55,000-pound semi-truck struck a passenger van and pushed it into another parked semitruck, according to prosecutors and Smith’s attorneys…