McDonald County, MO — May 3, 2025, an infant was killed and another person was injured in a truck accident at about 6 p.m. on Interstate 49.

Authorities said a 2012 Honda Accord crashed into the back of a 2025 Freightliner Cascadia semi-truck south of Goodman after traffic stopped because there was an animal in the road.

Both occupants of the Honda were taken to an area hospital, where a 1-year-old girl was pronounced dead, according to authorities. The driver, a 22-year-old Joplin woman, suffered minor injuries in the crash.

The truck driver was not injured, authorities said.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the McDonald County crash at this time. The accident is still under investigation.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

This is the kind of incident where it is important not to make assumptions, even though I expect that most people would think this crash happened because the driver of the Honda wasn't paying attention to what was happening in front of her. But I've seen enough accidents like this involving commercial trucks to know there is nothing simple about what happened on I-49 south of Goodman.

Visibility likely played a significant role in this crash. Depending on the geography of the area — things like hills, curves or tree cover — drivers may only have a few seconds to register that traffic has stopped. Add to that the size and color of a semi-trailer, which can blend into the surroundings under low-contrast lighting or shadow conditions, and it’s not hard to imagine how a driver could miss it until it's too late.

Even at a conservative 65 mph, a car covers about 95 feet every second. That means a driver who looks up and sees a stopped trailer just 300 feet away has less than four seconds to react. For a young driver with a child in the car, faced with a sudden and unexpected stop, that’s barely enough time to hit the brakes, much less come to a safe stop.

These risks are compounded when commercial trucks don’t use hazard lights, reflective markers or flares to warn traffic behind them. We don’t know if those were in place here, but without them, a stopped truck essentially becomes a hidden danger. It’s not just about who hit whom; it’s about whether drivers had a fair chance to see and avoid the danger in time.

This crash reinforces a point that comes up often in these cases: when large trucks are stopped in travel lanes, especially on high-speed rural roads, visibility and communication become life-or-death issues. If the presence of a hazard — whether it’s a truck, wildlife or traffic backup — isn’t clearly and immediately obvious to approaching drivers, the odds of someone getting hurt go up dramatically. In this case, it cost a child her life. That’s not just a consequence of the crash. It’s a failure to give drivers a chance to prevent it.