Atlanta, GA — June 25, 2025, one person was killed in a truck accident at about 3:15 a.m. on westbound Interstate 20 near Lee Street.

Authorities said a Ford Expedition crashed into the back of a semi-truck that had stopped after two vehicles were involved in a crash ahead of it.

The driver of the Expedition, whose name has not been made public yet, died in the crash, according to authorities.

No other injuries have been reported.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the crash near downtown Atlanta. The accident is still being investigated.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear that a man died after crashing into the back of a stopped semi on I-20 in Atlanta, one question tends to loom large: Why was that truck stopped in the middle of the interstate in the first place?

According to reports, the truck had come to a stop because of an earlier wreck involving two other vehicles. That may sound like a simple chain reaction, but from a legal standpoint, it raises more questions than it answers. Most importantly: Was the truck stopped in a reasonably safe manner, and was it properly visible to oncoming traffic?

Trucks don’t just get to stop anywhere they want on an interstate. If a crash ahead made it unsafe to proceed, then the trucker may have had little choice. But that doesn’t automatically mean the stop was handled correctly. Depending on how long the truck had been stopped and what visibility conditions were like at 3:15 a.m., this may have been a preventable rear-end collision.

To answer that, investigators will need to examine dash cam footage, engine control module (ECM) data and possibly any reflective devices or emergency signals the trucker deployed (or failed to deploy). At night, a stopped truck becomes extremely hard to see, especially if the driver hasn’t set out reflective triangles or activated hazard lights as required under federal regulations.

We also don’t know whether the truck had just recently stopped or had been there for some time. That’s a key distinction. If the truck had been sitting there for minutes without hazard signals or emergency lighting, that could shift a significant amount of responsibility toward the trucking company.

In my experience, rear-end collisions with stopped semis often involve more than one failure. Maybe the trucker did stop for good reason, but failed to make the vehicle visible. Or maybe the crash ahead didn’t actually require the truck to stop where it did at all. Getting to the bottom of those issues takes more than a police report. It takes an independent investigation focused on physical evidence, driver behavior and trucking company practices.

Key Takeaways:

• A key question is whether the stopped truck was made adequately visible to approaching drivers at 3:15 a.m.
• Investigators will need to examine black box data, dash cams and compliance with visibility rules (e.g., hazard lights, reflective triangles).
• It’s unclear how long the truck was stopped or whether it needed to stop at all.
• Rear-end crashes into stopped trucks often involve failures beyond the final impact, including poor visibility or questionable positioning.
• Accountability hinges on evidence, something families often don’t get unless someone presses to obtain it.