Fort Worth, TX — August 20, 2025, Margarita Hill was injured in a truck accident at about 4 a.m. on State Highway 114 near Internet 35W.

A preliminary accident report indicates that a 2008 Lexus LX was heading east when it rear-ended a 2010 Freightliner Columbia semi-truck.

Lexus driver Margarita Hill, 61, was seriously injured in the crash, according to the report.

The truck driver was not hurt, the report states.

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

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear that a car rear-ended a semi-truck, they often assume the smaller vehicle is automatically at fault. But that’s not always how the law, or the evidence, works. The key question in a case like this isn’t just who hit whom, but why the crash happened in the first place.

Authorities say the crash happened around 4 a.m. on State Highway 114, which raises several immediate questions. Was the truck moving slowly? Was it stopped in the travel lane? Was it merging onto the highway or exiting? Without answers to those basic facts, it's premature to assume fault lies with the driver who hit the truck from behind.

Depending on whether the truck was stopped or in motion, different legal questions come into play. If it was stopped, was it due to mechanical failure, or driver error? If it was moving, was it going too slowly for highway traffic? These are not just technicalities. They're critical to understanding whether this crash was avoidable and who might be responsible.

That’s why in every truck accident investigation I’ve worked on, one of the first steps is obtaining and analyzing the truck’s black box data. That data tells us how fast the truck was going, whether it braked suddenly and even how long it had been on the road. Combined with dash cam footage, if the truck had one, and the driver’s cell phone records, we can begin to piece together a reliable timeline of events.

Another key question is whether the driver was properly qualified to be behind the wheel. Did the trucking company perform a real background check? Did they review the driver’s prior accident history? I’ve had cases where companies skipped these steps entirely, only to hire drivers who should never have been on the road in the first place. One case involved a driver who had been fired multiple times before being hired without more than a 20-minute road test. That crash, too, happened in the early morning hours, and it turned out to be a preventable disaster.

Until more facts are released, we simply don’t know what led to this particular crash. But what I can say from experience is that rear-end collisions involving 18-wheelers are more complex than they seem. Responsibility isn’t just about position on the road. It’s about decisions made by drivers, companies and others behind the scenes long before the crash ever occurred.

Key Takeaways:

• A rear-end crash involving a semi-truck doesn’t automatically mean the following driver is at fault.
• The truck’s speed, position, and movement at the time of the crash are still unanswered questions.
• Black box data, dash cam footage and cell phone records are critical tools to determine the truth.
• Trucking companies can share legal responsibility if poor hiring or training practices contributed to the crash.
• Real accountability depends on gathering all available evidence, not assumptions based on surface details.