Randall County, TX — March 15, 2025, a 16-year-old girl was injured due to a semi-trailer accident at around 9:40 p.m. on South Washington Street.

According to initial details about the accident, it happened north of the Washington Street (FM 1541) and Loop 335, just south of Abilene.

Preliminary statements said that a 16-year-old girl was in a Chevy Cruze going southbound on Washington Street. An International semi-trailer was reportedly going eastbound. The truck allegedly failed to yield to the teen girl, resulting in a collision with the Chevy Cruze.

Due to the crash, the teen driver reportedly had serious injuries. No other injuries were reported. Authorities say they recommended charges for the truck driver. Additional details are unavailable.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

There are a lot of less-experienced professionals in my line of work who might see a situation like this, see that authorities blamed the trucker, and just assume this is a slam dunk. The reality is that even a crash like this—when handled properly—can present major challenges that require a lot of careful investigations and years of experience. Let me explain why.

To put it simply, an investigation into any commercial vehicle accident has to include any employers involved—not just the drivers. Even something as simple as failing to yield can end up being the result of more serious mistakes happening behind the scenes. Not only is it important to address those issues for the sake of the victims and families involved, but it's also important for everyone else on the road with that employer's drivers.

Here's an example from a case I handled a while back. I had a case where a driver was on the road for over 20 hours, and it led to a serious crash. Obviously, the driver broke the rules and violated his hours of service. Instead of just taking that for granted, we dug into why the driver did that. As it turned out, his employer routinely pushed drivers to meet more and more ludicrous delivery deadlines. Drivers who did so were rewarded. Drivers who took their time to follow the rules rather than put lives at risk were penalized. Inevitably, someone was going to get hurt, but that company didn't care about the danger they were putting others in.

If a company like that can just throw a driver to the wolves, then continue business as usual, they're going to keep putting lives at risk. Not only that, but my experience working with hundreds of people affected by negligent commercial vehicle drivers is they don't want some "bad guy" to blame. They want to see accountability. That means ensuring all wrongdoers face appropriate consequences. Investigating a serious crash beyond the scene helps to ensure that happens.

Perhaps nothing like that example led to this crash. This could all be an isolated mistake. But it's important to let the evidence say that for sure. That's why investigations should look into the driver's history, their training records, their logs, and also pull electronic data from things like cellphones, the truck's Engine Control Module, and any possible cameras that may have captured the accident on video. With all of that, there can be a clear picture of whether this was just one person's mistake or a whole company whose actions nearly got a young girl killed.