Norton County, KS — May 7, 2025, Rhiannon Romey, Roxy White, Sierra Dial and a teen were injured in a truck accident at about 8 p.m. on U.S. Route 283.

Authorities said a 2020 Chevrolet Malibu was pulling onto the highway from Lower Dam Road when it was hit by a 2014 Peterbilt semi-truck.

The 17-year-old Chevrolet driver and passengers Rhiannon Romey, 18, Roxy White, 20, and Sierra Dial, 20, were hospitalized with unspecified injuries after the crash just south of Norton, according to authorities. The truck driver was not injured.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Norton County crash at this time. The accident is still being investigated.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When a passenger vehicle pulls onto a highway and is struck by a semi-truck, the first legal question is whether the driver failed to yield or if the truck’s speed or behavior contributed to the crash. In my experience, determining that often depends on information that goes well beyond what can be gathered at the scene.

Authorities typically assume the driver of the smaller vehicle made a mistake by entering the roadway unsafely. That may be true here, but it's also possible the truck was traveling too fast, didn’t have lights on in a low-light situation or wasn’t where it should have been. I’ve seen several cases where it turned out the truck was either exceeding the speed limit or positioned in a way that made it harder for other drivers to gauge the situation.

To figure that out, investigators would need to gather dashcam footage, ECM data from the truck and potentially cellphone records or witness statements. In particular, the truck’s “black box” can tell us its speed and braking activity right before the crash, which could either confirm or refute the assumption that the smaller vehicle was solely at fault.

This crash is a good reminder that legal liability in truck accidents is rarely simple. You have to dig into the evidence to find out what really happened, and not just rely on who hit whom.