Cedar County, IA — April 17, 2025, one person was killed in a truck accident at about 2:15 p.m. on eastbound U.S. Route 30.

Authorities said a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu was turning left onto Taylor Avenue when it was hit from behind by a semi-truck. The crash knocked the Chevrolet into the ditch, and the truck ended up on the shoulder.

The driver of the Chevrolet, a 59-year-old Lowden resident whose name has not been made public yet, died in the crash, according to authorities.

The truck driver was not injured.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the crash at this time. The accident is still under investigation.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When I see that a semi-truck rear-ended a car that was turning left, I know what many people are thinking: "The car was slowing down, the truck didn’t stop: case closed." But that assumption skips over the most important part of a crash investigation: why the truck didn’t stop in time. That’s the question that actually determines who should be held accountable.

Let’s start with the basics. Commercial truck drivers have a legal duty to maintain a safe following distance. That’s not just a good driving tip. It’s part of their job. They’re supposed to anticipate changes in traffic and control their vehicle in a way that avoids preventable collisions. When a truck plows into the back of a turning car in broad daylight, it raises serious concerns about whether that duty was met.

A key part of any investigation in a case like this should be the engine control module (ECM), sometimes called the truck’s "black box." It records data like speed, braking and throttle use in the moments before a crash. Was the driver speeding? Did they even hit the brakes before the crash? These are not guesses. Those answers are available if someone bothers to look.

Equally important is the question of driver distraction. Was the truck driver on a cell phone? Was there in-cab video that might show what the driver was doing? In my experience, it’s not uncommon to find out that a driver was looking at a device or reaching for something when they should have been slowing down. Unfortunately, a lot of investigators don’t look into these possibilities unless someone pushes them to.

Some may be tempted to say that the turning driver made a sudden or unsafe move. That’s certainly a possibility worth exploring, but it's not something that can be assumed without evidence. In fact, when a car is hit from behind while preparing for a turn, it usually means they were slowed or stopped for at least a few seconds. A professional driver in a properly maintained truck should have seen that coming and had time to react.

The sad truth is, when someone dies in a crash like this, they don’t get a say in what happened. That makes it all the more important for investigators to ask the right questions and gather the right evidence, not just write a summary based on where the vehicles ended up.

In my view, any time a commercial vehicle rear-ends another car, the burden is on the trucking company to show they weren’t careless. And in order for that to happen, someone has to do the work of finding out whether the driver behind the wheel was actually doing their job the way the law requires.