Keith County, NE — May 3, 2025, Sergen Tas and Lionel Grate were killed and Kimberly Grate was injured in a truck accident at about 11:45 p.m. on Interstate 80.

Authorities said a westbound semi-truck crossed the median near Brule and crashed into an eastbound semi-truck.

Both drivers, New Jersey resident Sergen Tas, 31, and South Carolina resident Lionel Grate, 41, died at the scene of the crash, according to authorities. A passenger in the eastbound truck, Kimberly Grate, 38, was flown to a Denver hospital with injuries not thought to be life-threatening.

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

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When one semi-truck crosses a highway median and crashes head-on with another, most people focus on the aftermath, and for good reason. But as someone who’s worked on more than a few of these cases, I find it more helpful to focus on how and why a truck could leave its lane in the first place.

In this crash, it appears a westbound semi crossed the median on Interstate 80 and hit an eastbound truck near Brule. That’s not something that happens under normal circumstances. In my experience, the cause usually boils down to one of a few scenarios: driver fatigue, a mechanical failure or an avoidable distraction in the cab. All three point toward failures that don’t just happen out of nowhere. They’re usually tied to decisions made before the wheels ever rolled.

For example, if fatigue was a factor, was the driver operating under pressure to meet a deadline? Was there any evidence they’d been on the road longer than hours-of-service rules allow? Those are red flags that often point to systemic issues in how a trucking company manages its drivers. On the other hand, if the issue was mechanical — say, a steering or brake failure — then maintenance records and inspection history will tell the story. Inadequate maintenance is a common thread in many of the worst crashes I’ve seen.

It’s also worth pointing out how vital median barriers can be in situations like this. Many stretches of interstate still rely on grassy medians alone to separate traffic, even though cable or concrete barriers can prevent cross-median crashes altogether. When two loaded semis collide head-on, the outcome is almost always deadly. The question is whether that kind of collision should have been physically possible in the first place.

At the end of the day, crashes like this are rarely just bad luck. They’re the final link in a chain of choices, some made by the driver, others by the company that put them on the road. The real work now lies in figuring out where that chain broke.