A San Jose man was sentenced to 60 days in county jail for lying to his insurance company after he checked the brakes of a truck on the freeway in a fit of road rage, prosecutors said.
Ken Pham Tran, 53, was convicted last month of felony insurance fraud, felony vandalism and reckless driving, a misdemeanor, stemming from a road rage incident on Highway 101 in January 2025, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said Tran thought the truck had cut him off and became angry, caught up to his Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and then stopped in front of it and hit the brakes twice. The truck driver attempted to change lanes to avoid the Jeep, but Tran maneuvered the car in front of the truck a third time and checked the brakes again.
Dash cam video of the incident showed traffic slowed well ahead of the white Jeep when it stopped abruptly in front of the truck, causing the truck to rear-end the vehicle.
“Road rage. Reckless driving. Insurance fraud. This person made a lot of bad decisions,” the district said. Lawyer. Jeff Rosen said in a prepared statement.
Tran could not immediately be reached for comment.
After the crash, Tran called 911 and reported the truck driver for a hit-and-run, lying to police that he was stopped in traffic when he was hit, prosecutors said. They added that Tran also failed to disclose the actual cause of the accident when he filed a claim with Progressive Insurance.
But Tran wasn't the only one who called 911 about the accident.
Another driver had called police to report that they had to swerve to avoid a white Jeep Wrangler Rubicon that was “driving recklessly and braking a truck on Highway 101,” the California Department of Insurance wrote in a news release.
The witness told authorities that it didn't look like the truck had a chance to avoid the accident.
A judge also ordered Tran to pay $1,200 in restitution to Progressive Insurance and just over $3,000 to Bill Jacobsen Trucking, according to the district attorney's office.
