Haywood County, TN — March 25, 2025, A driver was injured following an 18-wheeler accident that occurred around 12:00 P.M. on I-40.

An investigation is underway following an accident involving a FedEx tractor-trailer that left one person injured during the afternoon hours of March 25th. According to official reports, a FedEx 18-wheeler was traveling on I-40 in the westbound lanes near mile-marker 48, when for unknown reasons the truck lost control and crossed through the eastbound lanes before going off-road where it struck several trees before catching fire.

When first responders arrived on the scene, they found that the driver had sustained serious injuries and they were transported to the hospital for treatment. At this time there has been no further information released from the accident, including the identity and status of the driver, or what could have caused the accident, however this remains an ongoing investigation and more details may be released by authorities in the future.

Commentary

Whenever I hear that a tractor-trailer crossed the median and ended up off-road, striking trees and catching fire, I don’t start by asking what happened. I start by asking what went wrong before the crash ever started. That’s the only way to begin answering the bigger legal question: Who is responsible?

From what’s been released so far, we know the FedEx truck was westbound before it somehow lost control, crossed into the eastbound lanes, and ended up crashing off the road. That kind of loss of control doesn’t just happen. It usually points to one of a few serious underlying problems—mechanical failure, driver distraction, fatigue, or a medical emergency.

The problem is, none of those possibilities can be confirmed at the crash scene. You need to go beyond it. That means pulling ECM data to see what the truck was doing in the seconds before the crash. Was the driver braking? Steering erratically? Speeding? You also need cell phone records, because if a distraction played a role, that’s where the evidence is going to be. And if there’s an in-cab camera system, it might hold the clearest picture of what led up to the truck losing control.

People tend to focus on dramatic outcomes like a fire or a rollover, but those are just symptoms. The real cause is usually upstream from the crash itself—decisions made in the cab, maintenance choices made at the garage, or policies made by the company weeks or months earlier. If investigators stop at the crash scene, they’ll never uncover that.

I don’t know yet what caused this wreck. I don’t know what role, if any, the trucking company’s policies or the driver’s decisions played. But I do know this: unless someone takes the time to pull every piece of available evidence, the story won’t be complete—and the answers won’t be either.