Fresno, CA — May 9, 2025, One person was killed following a tow truck accident that occurred at around 2:00 A.M. on Friant Road.

An investigation is underway into a tow truck accident that left one person dead during the early-morning hours of May 9th. According to official reports, a vehicle operated by Amaya Chenot was traveling on Friant Road near Shepherd when for unknown reasons the vehicle was struck on the side by a toe truck that ran a red light.

When first responders arrived on the scene, they found that Chenot had sustained fatal injuries and they were pronounced deceased, and according to reports the driver of the tow truck has been charged. At this time there has been no further information released about the accident, however this remains an ongoing investigation and more details may be released by authorities in the future.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When I hear that a commercial vehicle, especially one as heavy and potentially dangerous as a tow truck, reportedly ran a red light and caused a fatal crash, my first thought isn’t about what happened in the intersection—it’s about what needs to be investigated beyond it.

In my experience litigating crashes involving commercial vehicles, a red light violation is never just about a missed traffic signal. It often points to deeper issues involving driver training, fatigue, company oversight, or poor hiring decisions. If the driver of the tow truck was charged, as reported, that certainly points to individual fault—but that’s just the start of what needs to be understood here.

The key legal question that arises is whether the company that employs this driver met its obligations under the law. Did they vet this driver properly before putting them on the road? Was the driver trained to operate the tow truck safely? Were there systems in place to monitor driving behavior—such as GPS tracking or dash cameras—and if so, has anyone pulled that data to confirm what was happening in the moments before the crash?

These are the kinds of questions I’ve had to ask in many of the cases I’ve handled. And often, what looks like a simple error turns out to be a warning sign that was ignored or even tolerated by the employer. In one case I litigated, a truck driver was found to have caused a deadly wreck, but what really moved the needle in court was evidence that the company hired him despite multiple red flags on his record. That’s why every crash involving a commercial vehicle demands a deeper look—not just at the driver, but at the systems and people who put him behind the wheel.

From what little information is publicly available at this stage, it’s not clear how far the investigation will go. But the presence of criminal charges suggests there was some evidence pointing clearly to fault. What remains to be seen is whether anyone is looking at whether this driver should have been on the road in the first place. In my view, if investigators stop at the crash scene, they’ll never get the full picture. And when a life has been lost, that's simply not good enough.