Sangamon County, IL — January 6, 2026, Jennifer Damm and her daughter were killed in a truck accident at about 6:40 a.m. on Interstate 55.

Authorities said a passenger car was headed south near mile marker 92 when it crashed into the back of a semi-truck.

Car driver Jennifer Damm, 37, and her 8-year-old daughter died from injuries suffered in the crash near Interstate 72, according to authorities.

No other injuries were reported.

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

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear that a car crashed into the back of an 18-wheeler, they often assume it must have been the car driver’s fault. But from a legal perspective, that conclusion is premature, especially when two lives were lost, as happened here. Before anyone can truly say what caused this crash, we need to ask some key questions and get access to objective evidence.

To start, we don’t yet know why the passenger vehicle hit the back of the truck. Was the truck moving at highway speed? Was it stopped or moving slowly? Had it just entered the highway from a ramp? Did it pull back into traffic after stopping on the shoulder? Depending on the answers, very different liability questions arise.

For instance, if the truck was stopped or moving slowly in a high-speed lane, we’d want to know what led to that. Did the truck break down? Did it run out of fuel? Was the driver confused or lost? I once handled a case where a trucker stopped in the middle of a highway at night because he thought he missed an exit. It was pitch black, no hazards were on and the result was fatal.

Even if the truck was moving at a reasonable speed, that’s not the end of the inquiry. Was it properly marked and lit? Were its taillights working? A common problem I’ve seen is trailer lighting that’s dim or completely out; and when a trailer is invisible in the early-morning dark, that can turn deadly. Investigators should be inspecting the lighting system, especially since this crash happened around 6:40 a.m., well before sunrise in Illinois in January.

We also don’t yet know what the truck driver saw or did before the crash. Many trucks now have in-cab cameras or forward-facing dash cams. Did this one? If so, that footage could show whether the car approached quickly or whether the truck was sitting still for a significant period before impact. Likewise, the truck’s ECM (engine control module) could show whether it was accelerating, coasting or idling at the time. All of that data is critical.

And what about the trucking company? Did they do their job in hiring and training the driver? Did the driver have a clean history or a pattern of poor judgment? One case I handled involved a driver with multiple terminations for safety issues before he was hired by a company that barely checked his background. That driver caused a fatal crash, and the company was held accountable for putting him on the road.

At this stage, the authorities haven’t released enough details to draw conclusions. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from handling truck crash cases for more than 30 years, it’s that rear-end collisions involving 18-wheelers are rarely as simple as they seem. Until someone digs into the physical evidence — black box data, lighting systems, dash cams and hiring records — we’re left with more questions than answers.

Key Takeaways:

• It's unclear whether the truck was moving or stopped at the time of the crash; this is a key unanswered question.
• Early-morning conditions raise concerns about visibility, lighting and whether the truck was adequately marked.
• Objective evidence like dash cam footage and ECM data could clarify what happened in the moments before impact.
• The trucking company’s role, including hiring and maintenance practices, must be scrutinized as part of any serious investigation.
• Rear-end crashes involving trucks require more than assumptions. They demand hard evidence to establish accountability.