Van Wert County, OH — December 18, 2024, Blane Williamson was killed due to a semi-truck accident at around 6:16 p.m. along U.S. Route 30.

Preliminary details about the accident about the accident say that it happened at the intersection of U.S. 30 and State Route 49, northwest of Convoy.

According to officials, 64-year-old Blane Williamson was in a semi traveling westbound along U.S. 30. Another semi-truck was going southbound on S.R. 49. At U.S. 30, the southbound semi-truck reportedly pulled through the stop sign, and Williamson crashed into it.

Due to the collision, Williamson was killed. There did not appear to be any other serious injuries. Right now, potential charges and citations are unavailable.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

In the images of this intersection I've seen, it seems clear that traffic on U.S. 30 has the right-of-way. It seems like this is a crash, then, that rarely happens without the person going through the stop sign failing to yield. Is that what happened? Even if it is, that isn't likely to make this as open-and-shut as folks may think. Any experienced truck driver will attest to the fact that other reckless truckers often cause accidents both due to their own actions and due to their employers. Let me explain why that's important.

I've handled hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases, and many of them involved negligent employers who made a serious crash all but inevitable. For example, I had one case where a driver was behind the wheel for over 20 hours straight. Obviously, that driver screwed up, but that's as far as the official investigations went. We kept digging, and we found the driver's employer all but coerced the driver into being reckless.

This company would routinely set unreasonable deadlines, expecting drivers to do everything they could to meet them. This meant drivers had to speed, avoid rest breaks, put off maintenance work, make reckless maneuvers, and otherwise cut every possible corner to make time. Some drivers could find work at a more reputable company. Others were left with a choice: be a safe driver, or put food on the table. Inevitably, this led to reckless decisions, and people got hurt.

Maybe that isn't what happened here, but this is a well-known issue in the trucking industry that I see responsible, safe professional truckers call out all the time. Too often, though, authorities let it slide and focus all of their efforts on the crash scene. Without proper, thorough investigations, those companies get to fly under the radar and continue business as usual until more innocent drivers end up hurt or killed. That's why I have to wonder what steps are being taken here to ensure the victim's loved ones are getting the full story.