Collier County, FL — September 5, 2024, a Naples woman was killed following a tanker truck accident at around 9:00 a.m. along Immokalee Road.

Florida Highway Patrol officials indicate that the accident happened at the intersection of Immokalee Road and Logan Boulevard.

According to officials, a 47-year-old Naples woman was in an SUV going southbound on Logan. While the woman was attempting to turn left onto eastbound Immokalee Road, police say a tanker truck ran the light and crashed into the SUV. As a result, the woman was killed. Two children who were in the SUV had unspecified injuries. Right now, details regarding possible charges or citations are unavailable.

It’s easy to assume that a truck running a red light is an open-and-shut case of driver error. But in my experience handling hundreds of commercial vehicle accidents, these situations are rarely that simple. Of course, the truck driver may have made a mistake, but the bigger question is often why that mistake happened in the first place. Was it simply a lapse in judgment, or were there other factors at play that trace back to the driver’s employer?

For example, trucking companies often pressure their drivers to meet tight deadlines, pushing them to prioritize speed over safety. Incentivizing this behavior—or punishing those who take the time to be safe—inevitably leads to drivers being fatigued, speeding, trying to beat lights, using their phone or other devices while driving, etc. Someone is bound to get hurt, but so long as a company can cut their driver loose and continue business as usual without any consequences, they'll keep putting lives in danger.

Another critical factor is whether a driver was adequately trained and qualified to be behind the wheel in the first place. It takes a lot of skill and patience to be a truck driver, but responsible truckers know better than most that some companies out there don't care about that. Some companies take shortcuts in their hiring practices, neglecting to train inexperienced drivers or ignoring red flags when a driver has a history of reckless behavior and causing accidents. So long as trucks are moving, they don't care about the risk their actions pose to the public.

This is why a commercial truck wreck investigation, when handled properly, is almost always complex. If all of the focus is on a single driver's actions, it risks letting the root cause of the crash slip through the cracks. When I think of all of the families I've worked with over the years, they weren't just looking for some bad guy to blame. They wanted accountability. Settling for an easy explanation or a quick solution isn't going to cut it. If there were steps that could have been taken to prevent this crash before the truck driver even got behind the wheel, there needs to be an answer for why those steps weren't taken.