Martin County, TX — June 17, 2025, Jamisha Newell and one other were injured due to an 18-wheeler accident at around 7:15 a.m. along Highway 349.

According to initial details about the accident, it happened in the area of County Road 2051.

Investigators said that 24-year-old Jamisha Newell and one other were in a Chevy Malibu going southbound on the highway. A Freightliner semi-trailer was going the opposite direction when it allegedly failed to yield while making a left turn. As a result, the vehicles collided.

Due to the collision, Jamisha Newell reportedly had serious injuries. The other occupant in the Malibu had non-severe injuries. Authorities cited the truck driver for failure to yield.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

In these initial reports, investigators say the truck driver failed to yield, leaving one person seriously injured. That may seem open-and-shut, considering the truck driver was reportedly cited. The real question, though, is why that turn was made in the first place, and what circumstances led to such an avoidable decision.

Left turns for commercial trucks are inherently risky. They take more time, require more space, and demand clear judgment about the speed and distance of oncoming traffic. When a truck driver gets that wrong, the consequences often fall hardest on the people in smaller vehicles. But in many of the cases I’ve worked on, those wrong decisions don’t come out of nowhere—they’re often shaped by how the trucking company runs its operation.

Was the driver under pressure to complete a delivery on time? Was this route unfamiliar, or poorly planned? Had the company trained the driver properly to handle complex traffic situations on two-lane rural highways like Highway 349? These are the kinds of questions that need to be answered before anyone chalks this up to a simple mistake.

In cases like this, the paper trail matters. Driver logs, delivery schedules, and company route assignments can reveal whether the driver was set up to make a safe decision—or whether they were rushed, fatigued, or navigating unfamiliar territory without proper support. When companies fail to plan responsibly, it's often the people on the road who pay the price.

Key Takeaways

• A failure-to-yield left turn by a semi-truck is a high-risk move that demands a closer look at why it happened.
• Trucking companies may contribute to poor decision-making by pressuring drivers with tight schedules or inadequate planning.
• Evidence like route assignments, driver logs, and training history should be part of the investigation.
• Commercial drivers aren’t just responsible for their decisions—companies are responsible for the conditions they operate under.
• Understanding how this crash happened means looking beyond the citation and into the system behind the wheel.