YOUNGSTOWN (WKBN) – Two civil lawsuits have been filed in connection with a crash that killed a local trooper on State Route 11 in Mahoning County.

Trooper Nicholas Cayton was killed in October 2025 when his cruiser was rear-ended by a Mack truck driven by a Canfield man. Cayton had stopped to assist a disabled tractor-trailer along Route 11, just south of Route 224, when the crash happened.

Cayton’s estate filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against the driver of the Mack truck and his employer, Leetonia-based Quaker City Concrete Products, their insurance company, and the driver of the tractor-trailer.

The lawsuit claims Quaker City was negligent in the hiring of the driver operating the Mack truck, claiming he was not trained or experienced enough to be operating it. It also claims that the driver of the tractor-trailer, who is from Ocala, Florida, was not operating his truck in a “safe and reasonable” manner, which also facilitated Cayton’s death.

The lawsuit is asking for a minimum of $25,000; however, Ohio law mandates that a civil lawsuit cannot specify an exact amount of a desirable award but can only put an amount to exceed a certain number, and that is typically $25,000. Historically, any settlement or award would be much higher.

Another civil lawsuit was filed earlier this month in connection with the crash. That lawsuit was filed by the driver of the disabled tractor-trailer. He was hurt in the crash when the driver of the Mack truck rear-ended Cayton’s cruiser and was flown by a medical helicopter to the hospital.

That lawsuit names the driver of the Mack truck, Quaker City Concrete Products and their insurance company as defendants. The lawsuit is for compensatory and punitive damages “in excess of the jurisdictional minimum of the court.”