Man sentenced to jail for phony insurance claim after road rage collision with big rig

SAN JOSE — A reputed road-rage driver caught on dashcam video swerving in front of a semi-truck and hitting his brakes abruptly — causing a collision on Highway 101 last year — was sentenced to jail for filing a phony insurance claim purporting that he was innocently stopped in traffic when he was rear-ended.

Ken Pham Tran, 53, of San Jose, was sentenced Friday to 60 days in jail in connection with his June 4 jury convictions for felony insurance fraud, felony vandalism and misdemeanor reckless driving. The jail time is in addition to two years of probation and restitution he was ordered to pay: $1,200 to Progressive Insurance and $3,000 to Bill Jacobsen Trucking, which operated the big rig.

“Road rage. Reckless driving. Insurance fraud. This person made a lot of bad decisions,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement Friday.

State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, whose office investigated the case along with the California Highway Patrol, added in a statement: “Crimes like these jeopardize public safety and increase insurance cost for consumers and businesses. I applaud the work of our detectives and investigators which is essential in protecting California drivers and holding offenders accountable.”

According to investigations by the CHP and a task force with the California Department of Insurance, on the afternoon of Jan. 28, 2025, Tran was agitated after believing the truck driver had cut him off, and used his white Jeep Wrangler Rubicon to twice brake-check the truck at the Story Road underpass on southbound Highway 101.

The truck driver moved to a left lane to avoid a collision, but Tran swerved in front of him and immediately hit his brakes, causing the truck to hit the back of the Jeep, all of which was recorded on the truck’s forward-looking dashboard camera.

Tran later called 911 claiming he was the victim of a hit-and-run collision, and told both authorities and his car insurance provider that he was stopped in traffic when he was rear-ended, leaving out his own actions. The dashcam video clearly shows several car lengths of open roadway ahead of Tran when the collision occurred.

What he likely did not know at the time is that a third-party witness also called 911 and reported having to swerve out of Tran’s way.

According to the insurance commissioner, the witness told investigators Tran was “swerving in and out of lanes to keep the semi-truck behind his vehicle,” and independently corroborated the dashcam video version. The witness added that “it looked as though the semi-truck would not have been able to prevent the collision.”