Cherokee County, GA — July 2, 2025, One person was injured following an 18-wheeler accident that occurred Wednesday on East Cherokee Drive.

According to official reports, an 18-wheeler hauling trash was traveling on East Cherokee Drive at Cokers Chapel Road when it struck a fire hydrant and rolled on its side. This caused the trash in the truck to spill on the road and the hydrant began spraying water in the area.

When first responders arrived on the scene they found the driver injured and transported them to the hospital for treatment. No other vehicle were involved in the crash and no other injuries were reported and this remains an ongoing investigation.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

Most people reading about this kind of crash are likely to wonder: How does a truck just tip over and spill its load—without hitting another vehicle? That’s a fair question, and so far, the available information doesn’t tell us nearly enough to answer it.

From what’s been reported, an 18-wheeler hauling trash rolled onto its side after striking a fire hydrant. But that leaves out a critical detail: what caused the driver to lose control in the first place? Did he swerve to avoid something in the road? Was he going too fast around a curve? Was the truck overloaded or improperly balanced? Each of those possibilities carries very different legal implications, and they’re not mutually exclusive.

The fact that the truck spilled its load of trash tells me that weight distribution may have played a role. When trash is packed unevenly or loaded too high, it shifts easily—especially when the vehicle turns or brakes hard. If that happened here, then whoever loaded the trailer may share some of the blame. That’s especially true if there were signs of overloading or missing restraints.

But loading is only one part of the equation. To figure out if driver error was involved, investigators will need to pull ECM data from the truck’s engine control module. That can show vehicle speed, brake usage, and steering input in the seconds before the rollover. And if the truck had in-cab cameras—as many waste-hauling trucks do—those could help confirm whether the driver was distracted or simply reacted to a dangerous situation.

Another piece worth examining is the trucking company’s internal policies. For example, how much training do their drivers receive? What procedures are in place to check load balance before sending a truck out? These aren’t abstract questions. I’ve worked on rollover cases where it turned out the driver wasn’t properly trained on how to handle curves or load checks, and the company never bothered to make sure the cargo was stable before hitting the road.

Without more information, we can’t say who’s responsible here. But crashes like this rarely come down to one bad moment—they’re often the result of several things going wrong behind the scenes. The only way to figure that out is by looking at all the evidence, not just what’s obvious at the crash site.

Key Takeaways:

• The cause of the rollover is still unknown—whether it was driver error, load instability, or another factor.
• Load shift or poor cargo balance may have contributed to the truck tipping over.
• ECM data and in-cab video (if available) are critical to understanding how the crash unfolded.
• The trucking company’s training and cargo handling policies should be closely examined.
• True accountability requires a full investigation—not assumptions based on surface-level details.