Seguin, TX — March 23, 2025, Jalyssa Montelongo, Jose Ramirez and three children were injured in a truck accident at about 11:30 a.m. on Interstate 10.

A preliminary accident report indicates a 2025 Freightliner semi-truck was headed west near State Highway 123 when it veered out of its lane and sideswiped a 2016 Ford Explorer.

Ford driver Jalyssa Montelongo, 25, and passenger Jose Ramirez, 35, suffered serious injuries in the crash, along with three children: an 8-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, according to the report.

The truck driver, who was not injured, was cited for failing to drive in a single lane, the report states.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Seguin County crash.

Commentary

When a fully loaded semi veers out of its lane on a major highway and slams into a family SUV, the most important question is: What caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle? Because from a legal perspective, a crash like this isn’t just a matter of bad luck: It’s a breakdown in professional responsibility.

The preliminary report says the truck driver was cited for failing to maintain a single lane. That may sound like a minor infraction, but when you're behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound vehicle, drifting out of your lane is no small thing. It’s a serious safety failure. The consequences in this case were severe: two adults and three children were seriously injured. That doesn’t happen unless someone behind the wheel makes a dangerous mistake.

The fact that the semi sideswiped the Ford Explorer suggests a moment of inattention, distraction or fatigue. Was the truck driver looking at their phone? Adjusting the radio? Falling asleep? Those are the kinds of questions that should drive this investigation. The truck’s engine control module can help clarify what was happening: whether there were sudden steering inputs, braking or throttle changes before or after the crash. Investigators also should check for dashcam footage, GPS data and phone records to see what the driver was doing in the moments leading up to the collision.

It’s also worth examining the role of the trucking company. Was the driver adequately rested and properly trained? Was he under pressure to meet a tight delivery schedule that might have encouraged unsafe driving? Did the company monitor driver behavior, or was this someone who had a history of safety issues that got overlooked? In my experience, crashes like this don’t usually come out of nowhere. They’re often the result of a pattern of shortcuts, oversights or poor judgment.

What stands out here is how preventable this was. Maintaining your lane on a straight stretch of highway is one of the most basic expectations of a professional driver. If that standard wasn’t met, and five people were hurt as a result, then it’s not just a citation: it’s a breach of the public trust that comes with operating a commercial truck on public roads.

Families don’t expect to be sideswiped in broad daylight by a professional driver drifting out of their lane. When it happens, the investigation needs to ask hard questions, not just about what happened in those few seconds, but about what allowed that driver to end up in that position in the first place. Because accountability on the road doesn’t start when the crash happens. It starts long before that, with the choices that either protect people or put them in harm’s way.