Travis County, TX — April 5, 2024, Richard Gregory and one other person were injured in a truck accident at approximately 1:10 p.m. along F.M. 1431.

According to authorities, 58-year-old Richard Gregory was traveling in an eastbound Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck in the inside of two lanes on F.M. 1431 in the vicinity west of the Nameless Road intersection when the accident took place.

The outside eastbound lane was occupied by a Peterbilt 18-wheeler truck and trailer. Officials indicate that, for as yet unknown reasons, the 18-wheeler attempted a lane change to the inside lane at an unsafe time. This resulted in a side-swipe collision between the right side of the Silverado and the left side of the 18-wheeler's trailer. The collision caused the Silverado to veer left, crossing over into the westbound lanes of the roadway where it was involved in a head-on collision with an oncoming Ford F-250 occupied by a 23-year-old man.

Gregory sustained injuries which authorities suspected to have been severe. The man from the Ford also apparently suffered moderate injuries. They were each transported to local medical facilities by EMS in order to receive treatment. No other injuries have been reported. Additional details pertaining to this incident are not available at this point in time. The investigation is currently ongoing.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

Looking at this crash, the first thing that pops into my mind is that holding someone accountable is probably going to be more difficult than people might assume at first. I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Come on, Mike, someone ran a driver off the road into oncoming traffic, how complicated can this crash be?" The simple answer is that commercial truck crash cases are always complex.

For one, drivers and their employers have a lot to lose when they're found at fault for a crash. As a consequence, they likely already have lawyers involved crafting their defense. That may sound far-fetched, but I've seen it first-hand. A few years back, I litigated a case where a truck driver pulled onto a highway to make a left turn during heavy fog. In the process the driver blocked an entire side of the roadway, which led to my client's vehicle striking the trailer at highway speeds.

In that case, did the attorneys for the trucking company throw up their hands and say "Well, this is indefensible. Let's do the right thing for your injured client?" Nope. First, they argued that the car's driver made a faulty evasive maneuver. When the evidence showed that by the time the driver could see the truck's trailer, he literally had no time to take any maneuver, the trucking company's attorneys pivoted to arguing that he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and that's what caused his injuries. Inconveniently for them, I had crash scene photos that showed the cuts on the seatbelt from where first responders had to cut my client out of his seatbelt in order to save his live. Those are just the highlights of all the ways they tried to argue that the crash wasn't their fault. These arguments may sound ridiculous, but if my team and I hadn't anticipated them and gathered evidence to refute them, who knows what a jury would have believed.

My point is that even when it's clear what caused a crash, the presence of trucking company attorneys and the stakes of the accident mean that they're always going to fight. It's up to victims and their loved ones to be prepared for that fight.