Fort Worth, TX — August 29, 2025, Beau Burdick was injured in a truck accident just before 11 a.m. on eastbound Interstate 20/Ronald Reagon Memorial Highway.

A preliminary accident report indicates that a 2018 Volvo semi-truck was changing lanes near Interstate 820 when it collided with a 2019 Ram 1500, knocking the pickup into a retaining wall.

Ram driver Beau Burdick, 20, was seriously injured in the crash, according to the report.

The truck driver, who was not hurt, was charged with making an unsafe lane change, the report states.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Tarrant County crash at this time.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear that a truck driver caused a crash while changing lanes, their first thought is usually pretty straightforward: “That’s reckless driving. Case closed.” But in my experience, these incidents are rarely that simple. Before anyone can say for sure who’s at fault, we need to understand what led to that unsafe lane change, and that means asking questions most people don’t think to ask.

Was the trucker distracted? Was he dealing with fatigue, an equipment issue or pressure from dispatch to make up time? It's not clear from the report whether the driver signaled before moving over, or whether he checked his mirrors or blind spots. Without those details, we’re left with unanswered questions, and no reliable way to understand why this crash happened.

That’s why the first step in any serious investigation should be to pull the truck’s engine control module data (also known as the black box). That will show us how fast the truck was going, whether the driver braked or swerved and what lane changes he attempted. If there were in-cab cameras, they may show whether the driver was using his phone or simply not paying attention. Call logs and GPS data could help fill in more of the timeline.

Then there’s the question of the trucking company’s role. Unsafe lane changes don’t happen in a vacuum. Did they hire an inexperienced driver? Did they verify his safety record before putting him behind the wheel? I've worked cases where companies skipped critical steps in hiring, and the consequences were devastating. One driver I investigated had been fired multiple times for safety issues, but the company that hired him never bothered to check.

We also need to know what policies the company had in place to prevent crashes like this. Was the driver trained on lane awareness, mirror usage and blind-spot safety? Did the company monitor his driving behavior over time? These are basic questions, but I’ve found that many companies either don’t ask them or don’t care about the answers until someone gets hurt.

Without clear evidence from the scene, we don’t yet know whether the truck was trying to merge from an on-ramp, get around a slower vehicle or simply drifting between lanes. But depending on what that evidence shows, the responsibility could fall solely on the driver, or also on the company that put him in that position in the first place.

Key Takeaways:

• It’s not yet clear why the truck driver made an unsafe lane change. Critical evidence like ECM data, dash cams or phone records will be key to understanding that.
• Lane-change crashes often point to deeper issues, like distracted driving, fatigue or poor training.
• The trucking company’s hiring and supervision practices must be reviewed to determine if they contributed to the crash.
• Legal accountability depends on a full investigation, not just the initial traffic citation.
• Getting to the truth means looking beyond the crash scene to understand how and why this happened.