Reno, NV — April 12, 2025, Lorraine Chavez was killed and six other people were injured in a truck accident at about 7 a.m. on Interstate 580.

Authorities said an SUV slowed in traffic while traveling south near the exit for South Virginia Street when it was hit from behind by a box truck. The impact caused the SUV to roll and sparked a chain reaction that involved three other vehicles.

A passenger in the SUV, Lorraine Chavez, died in the crash, according to authorities, while six others were injured.

The SUV reportedly was carrying four players from a San Antonio youth volleyball club that was in Reno for a tournament, according to news reports. Four players were hurt in the crash, along with one girl's mother and aunt.

Lorraine Chavez was the grandmother of one of the players from the San Antonio Empire Volleyball Club, according to an online fundraiser organized by the club.

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

Commentary

When a box truck fails to slow for traffic and rear-ends a passenger vehicle on the highway — especially early in the morning, when traffic is often changing rapidly — the legal questions tend to be straightforward: Was the truck driver following too closely, and did they have a reasonable opportunity to stop? In this crash on I-580 in Reno, those questions are especially important given the outcome: a fatality and multiple injuries resulting from what appears to have been a preventable failure to respond to changing road conditions.

According to reports, an SUV carrying several occupants, including youth athletes in town for a volleyball tournament, was struck from behind by a box truck after it slowed for traffic. The impact was strong enough to cause the SUV to roll and trigger a chain reaction involving three additional vehicles. That level of force, combined with the fact that the SUV rolled, strongly suggests that the truck was either traveling at highway speeds or made little to no attempt to stop.

From a legal standpoint, rear-end collisions like this are nearly always the result of the trailing driver's failure to maintain a safe following distance or to remain attentive to traffic conditions ahead. In the commercial trucking industry, this kind of error is particularly serious because box truck drivers are expected to exercise heightened caution due to longer stopping distances and larger blind spots. The rules are clear: drivers must operate their vehicles in a way that allows them to stop safely under any reasonably foreseeable conditions, including slowing traffic.

Key evidence in this case will include the box truck’s engine control module, which can confirm the vehicle’s speed, braking and throttle use in the moments leading up to the collision. If that data shows a delayed or absent braking response, investigators will need to explore whether the driver was distracted, fatigued or otherwise inattentive. Cell phone records and any available dashcam footage will be critical in answering those questions.

This crash also raises potential questions about the driver’s training and the policies of the company that operates the box truck. Was the driver adequately trained to handle urban highway conditions with fluctuating traffic? Were there deadlines or delivery schedules that may have encouraged aggressive or inattentive driving? These are factors that could shift the focus of legal responsibility beyond the individual behind the wheel and onto the company that put the driver on the road.

Ultimately, a family vehicle slowed down in traffic, as drivers often must do on busy highways. That vehicle was then struck from behind with enough force to flip and send multiple people to the hospital, one of whom did not survive. That isn’t a mystery of physics. It’s a failure of attention, space management or both.

The investigation needs to focus on what the box truck driver saw — or failed to see — and whether they had the time and space to avoid the crash. Because when commercial vehicles are operated without the margin of safety that the law requires, it’s not just the driver who pays the price. It’s the people who never saw it coming.