Update (January 15, 2026): Authorities have identified the man killed in this accident as 33-year-old Justin Dean of Whitewater.

Dodge County, WI — January 8, 2026, one person was killed in a truck accident at about 6:20 a.m. on County Road A east of Beaver Dam.

Authorities said a passenger car and a semi-truck collided head-on near Prospect Road.

The driver of the car, a man whose name has not been made public yet, died at the scene of the crash, according to authorities.

The truck driver was not injured, the report states.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Dodge County crash at this time. The accident is still under investigation.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear about a head-on collision between a car and an 18-wheeler, especially one that ends with someone losing their life, their first question is usually: How could that happen? And more to the point: Was the truck where it was supposed to be? In a crash like the one reported near Beaver Dam, where a car and a semi-truck collided head-on, the answers to those questions aren’t just important. They’re essential to figuring out who should be held accountable.

Right now, we don’t have enough information to say whether the truck crossed into the wrong lane or if the car did. That may sound like a small detail, but it makes all the difference. In my experience deadling with these kinds of crashes, even seasoned investigators can miss key facts if they don’t ask the right questions early on.

To get to the truth, we need to know what the truck was doing in the moments leading up to the crash. That starts with physical evidence at the scene — skid marks, point of impact and lane placement — but that’s just the beginning. Today’s trucks are equipped with powerful tools that can fill in the blanks. The truck’s engine control module (its “black box”) may show how fast the truck was going, whether the driver braked and what steering inputs were made. If there was a dash camera or in-cab camera system, we might even see what the driver saw, or failed to see, in the seconds before impact.

Cell phone records are another critical piece of the puzzle. Was the truck driver distracted? Were they texting or on a call? That’s not something you can figure out just by looking at the wreckage. Someone has to subpoena that data, analyze it and put it in context.

But the investigation shouldn’t stop at the crash site. I’ve handled cases where the root cause of a crash wasn’t what the driver did that day; it was the hiring practices of the company that put them behind the wheel. In one case, we found that a company hired a driver who’d been fired multiple times and gave her only a token driving test before turning her loose in an 80,000-pound vehicle. When you dig deep, you sometimes find that the driver’s poor performance was predictable, and preventable, if the company had taken their vetting process seriously.

In this crash, we don’t yet know whether this was a case of a driver error, a mechanical failure, a visibility issue or some other breakdown. But if the truck crossed the center line, then we’re looking at questions not just about what went wrong, but why it wasn’t caught before the crash occurred.

Key Takeaways:

• It's unclear which vehicle left its lane. This is the key fact that needs to be confirmed.
• Evidence like ECM data, dash cams and cell phone records can show what the truck was doing at the time of the crash.
• Driver history and hiring practices may play a role in how and why a crash occurred.
• Determining fault requires more than assumptions. It requires a thorough, evidence-based investigation.
• The goal is not just accountability, but making sure the right people are held responsible.