El Paso, TX — January 15, 2025, one person was injured in a car accident shortly before 11:15 p.m. along McComb Street (F.M. 2529).

According to authorities, a 20-year-old man was traveling in a southbound Infiniti on McComb Street at the Sun Valley Drive intersection when the accident took place.

Officials indicate that, for reasons yet to be confirmed, the Infiniti collided with an unoccupied Toyota RAV4. The man reportedly suffered serious injuries due to the accident. Additional details pertaining to this incident—including the identity of the victim—are not available at this point in time. The investigation is currently ongoing.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When a vehicle collides with a parked or unoccupied car, as reportedly occurred in this El Paso crash on McComb Street, the instinct is often to assume distraction or impairment played a role. But in my experience, especially when someone suffers serious injuries, it’s important to dig deeper. Crashes like this can have multiple contributing factors that aren’t immediately obvious. To understand what truly happened, three essential questions must be asked.

First, did investigators carefully examine the positioning and visibility of the unoccupied vehicle? An unoccupied Toyota RAV4 doesn’t belong in the middle of a traffic lane, but even if it was properly parked, visibility, lighting, and road design play critical roles. Was the RAV4 parked legally and fully out of the travel lane? Were its lights or reflectors visible? Was McComb Street adequately lit at that intersection? Investigators should document the exact location and orientation of both vehicles, assess line-of-sight, and review any available surveillance footage to determine how easily the parked vehicle could be seen.

Second, has anyone considered whether a mechanical failure in the Infiniti could have caused or contributed to the crash? A sudden loss of steering control, brake failure, or even a malfunction in the vehicle’s lighting system could explain why the driver failed to avoid the parked SUV. These issues are often invisible at the crash scene and require a forensic inspection of the vehicle to detect—something that must happen before the car is repaired or destroyed.

Finally, has all relevant electronic and digital data been preserved? The Infiniti likely has an event data recorder that stores crucial information such as vehicle speed, throttle position, brake application, and steering angle in the seconds before the crash. This data can clarify whether the driver attempted to avoid the collision and how the vehicle responded. Investigators should also seek out any dashcam footage, GPS tracking, or cell phone data to further reconstruct the sequence of events and identify any additional factors—like distraction or evasive maneuvering—that may have played a role.

Answering these three questions is critical to making sure that no stone is left unturned in understanding the causes of a crash like this. Serious wrecks deserve serious investigation, not assumptions. Getting clear answers to these questions is crucial for those seeking to understand what happened and why—and it's the least that can be done to help those affected find the clarity and closure they deserve.