A Kingfisher County jury deliberated just over two hours Friday before awarding twice the amount of damages sought by a man who crashed his pickup truck into an unmarked county road washout in 2017.

Nine of the 12 jurors signed a verdict against the county, awarding $800,000 in damages to Garrick Steven Yost of Kingfi sher.

(Unlike criminal trials, civil jury verdicts only require a three-fourths majority.)

In their closing arguments, Yost’s attorneys requested jurors assess damages in the range of $100,000-400,000 for pain and suffering, medical expenses and damage to Yost’s pickup truck.

When asked by the Times & Free Press whether the county was considering a possible appeal of the verdict, District 3 County Commissioner Heath Dobrovolny responded: “Not at this time.”

Dobrovolny, who was not in office at the time of the accident, said the judgment would be paid by the county’s insurance carrier and he had a meeting scheduled with a representative of the insurance company late Tuesday to determine what impact the payout will have on county insurance premiums.

He also said he is in the process of implementing a new protocol in his district in an effort to avoid similar situations.

“I’m working out the details of how to move forward appropriately and make sure I’ve done all that can be done to keep this from happening again,” Dobrovolny said. “I will be making an announcement at the appropriate time.”

Yost filed the lawsuit in October 2017, after suffering injuries when his truck crashed on a washed out county roadway that was not marked with warning signs on March 29, 2017.

The accident happened about 5:45 a.m. on County Road 870, four-tenths of a mile east of County Road 2730, where the rock roadway had apparently washed out after days of heavy rain.

According to his testimony, Yost had passed that same point about 9:30 p.m. the previous evening and the roadway had been intact.

Yost testified that he allegedly saw the washout too late to stop and accelerated in an attempt to clear it, but underestimated its size, and the undercarriage of his truck was torn off on the opposite embankment of the washout.

According to evidence presented to the jury, county 911 dispatchers were alerted to the washout by at least two other drivers and a sheriff’s car was dispatched to warn approaching motorists, but then turned around en route when notifi ed by 911 that Keith Schroder, then District 3 county commissioner, had been contacted.

A 911 dispatcher phoned Schroder sometime around midnight about water crossing the road.

Schroder arrived at the county shop at 5:30 a.m. to repair warning signs before sending them out with an employee to the washout site. Schroder was notified of Yost’s crash while the employee was enroute.

Among the county’s witnesses was an accident reconstructionist, who told the jury that the washout would have been about 720 feet in front of Yost as he topped a hill and perceiving a danger, responding and breaking to a full stop would have taken about 400 feet at the speed Yost was traveling.

The witness also testified that he had not driven the route in the dark, as Yost had, but said that high beams would have illuminated at least 600 feet in front of the vehicle and still allowed for adequate time to brake safely.

The lawsuit was heard by Blaine County Associate District Judge Allison Lafferty after Kingfisher County Associate District Judge Lance Schneiter recused and included two days of testimony before closing arguments on Friday morning.