Settlement reached in 2020 tanker crash suit [Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa]

Apr. 27—WATERLOO — A convenience store chain has settled with a Waterloo resident whose house was hit by a biodiesel tanker piloted by a naked driver in 2020.

Andrid "Andy" Olson took Kwik Trip Inc., known locally as Kwik Star, to court over the crash alleging negligence connected to the early morning crash that spilled 7,500 gallons of fuel.

Stillwater Insurance Group joined the action as the third-party plaintiff and Kwik Trip filed against the driver.

Authorities said a Kwik Trip driver, Dakota David Luck, had been on drugs at the business' biofuel blending facility on Ridgeway Avenue in the early morning hours of Aug. 20, 2020, when he commandeered another driver's tanker semi and headed into town.

The tanker was involved in a collision with a minivan and a beer truck at Ridgeway and Hammond Avenue. Following the impact, the semi careened into Olson's yard and crashed into the front right corner where he was sleeping downstairs.

The resulting spill triggered an environmental cleanup company to remove the fuel from the earth around the crash site and a nearby creek. Volunteers scrubbed clean a flock of ducks that called the stream home.

The undisclosed settlement over the damage to Olson's property came earlier this month after Kwik Trip petitioned the court for a summary judgment to dismiss the suit.

Kwik Trip attorneys argued there was no evidence the company could have foreseen the incident.

Luck, who had a clean record, had held a commercial driver's license for years and was subject to drug testing, which he passed.

The company said Luck had been taking hallucinogens — LSD, psychedelic mushrooms and dimethyltryptamine, a controlled substance also known as DMT — that aren't part of normal drug screenings and are only detectable with spinal taps.

Leading up to the crash, Luck had taken LSD and DMT and had been awake for about two weeks, court records state.

Another driver who was leaving the blending facility at around 6 a.m. on Aug. 20, 2020, noticed Luck had crashed a semi cab through a section of chain-link fence and was stuck in a ditch.

The other driver stopped his tanker truck and went to investigate. He found Luck inside the stack cab "going crazy" and punching everything, records state. He helped him out, and Luck began running around and drove off in the other driver's truck, according to court records.

Olson's attorney countered that Luck's behavior at the site was evidence of a foreseeable threat, and the other driver should have removed the keys and secured his truck

Luck pleaded to charges of theft, reckless use of explosives and possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced to prison in October 2021.

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