Fayette County, TX — March 30, 2025, Marion Forbes was injured as the result of a semi-truck accident at around 9:46 a.m. along Highway 71.

Investigators reported that the accident happened in the Kirtley area southeast of Smithville.

According to officials, 63-year-old Marion Forbes was in a Toyota Prius going westbound along the highway at the time. A Mack truck was going southbound when it reportedly failed to yield coming out of a private drive. This resulted in the truck colliding with Forbes's vehicle.

Due to the collision, Marion Forbes was seriously injured. There were no other reported injuries. Right now, additional details about the crash remain unconfirmed.

Commentary

People may look at these details, see that authorities blamed a truck driver for failing to yield, and figure that makes all of this open-and-shut. I've handled hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases, and there's often more to the story. It's important that investigators find out not just what happened but why. Even if a truck driver makes a mistake, there may have been underlying issues all along that made that mistake inevitable.

One of the most common issues behind these types of crashes is that trucking companies often push drivers to operate on rigid, demanding schedules. When drivers are expected to hit deadlines that don’t leave room for traffic delays, rest, or routine safety checks, they can find themselves having to make risky choices just to stay on track.That pressure may not be obvious at the crash scene, but it plays out in decisions like rushing through intersections, skipping breaks, or making turns without fully assessing the surroundings. If investigators don’t look into the driver’s work schedule, hours of service logs, and communications with their dispatcher, they may miss the full picture of what led to the crash.

Another critical part of any serious truck accident investigation is looking into the driver’s background and the training they received before getting behind the wheel. It's not uncommon for drivers to be put on the road without the proper qualifications. On top of that, a driver’s past can reveal important patterns—like prior accidents, safety violations, or employment issues—that speak to whether they should have been operating a commercial vehicle at all. If investigators don’t look at this part of the puzzle, they risk missing clear signs that a crash was preventable long before the truck ever reached the roadway.

At the end of the day, I can't recall a single victim or family that just wanted some "bad guy" to blame. They wanted accountability. If there's a company engaging in negligent behavior that fosters reckless driving habits, then they're bound to continue putting lives at risk until they face appropriate consequences. So while it could be there was just a single reckless driver who made a mistake here, it's important to dig into the root cause of that mistake. Otherwise, there could be serious problems beneath the surface that are allowed to continue.