Montour County, PA — February 14, 2025, Courtney Hurry was killed in a truck accident at about 9:45 a.m. on westbound Interstate 80.

Authorities said a 2007 Chevrolet sedan crashed into the back of a semi-truck hauling a flatbed trailer that was stopped near mile marker 225 because of an earlier accident.

Chevrolet driver Courtney Hurry, 22, was pronounced dead at the scene of injuries sustained in the crash near Danville, according to authorities.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the crash at this time. The accident is still being investigated.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

Crashes where a vehicle rear-ends a stopped semi-truck often lead people to assume the driver of the smaller vehicle is solely at fault. However, in my experience, these situations are rarely that simple. The key question is whether the truck was visible and properly positioned when the crash happened.

A flatbed trailer, especially one without a load, can be difficult to see under certain conditions. If the truck was stopped due to an earlier crash, investigators should be looking at whether it had its lights or hazard signals activated and whether it was positioned in a way that gave oncoming drivers enough time to react. I’ve seen cases where trailers lacked proper reflective markings or lighting, making them nearly invisible to other drivers, especially in poor weather or low-visibility conditions.

Another issue worth examining is whether the truck was stopped in a safe location. Was it pulled over onto the shoulder, or was it still partially in the roadway? Stopping in a live lane of traffic, even in response to an earlier wreck, creates a serious hazard. Investigators should look at whether the truck driver had any opportunity to move to a safer location and whether proper warnings were in place for approaching traffic.

While people often assume rear-end crashes are open-and-shut cases, the reality is that visibility, road conditions, and vehicle positioning all play a role. The only way to know what really happened is to look beyond the crash scene and gather all available evidence, including black box data, surveillance footage and forensic examination of the vehicles involved.