Kansas City, KS — March 21, 2024, two people were injured in a truck accident at about 9:30 a.m. on northbound Interstate 635.

Authorities said a semi-truck loaded with batteries was entering I-635 from eastbound Interstate 70 when it turned over onto an SUV.

The driver of the SUV and a 6-year-old child were hospitalized with serious injuries after being extricated from the vehicle, according to authorities.

The truck driver was not injured, authorities said.

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 a semi-truck tips over onto another vehicle — especially while merging onto a highway — it raises immediate concerns about how that truck was loaded and how it was being operated. In my experience, these aren’t just unfortunate “accidents.” They’re usually the result of decisions that should have been avoided long before the crash ever happened.

This particular crash involved a semi-truck loaded with batteries tipping over onto an SUV while entering I-635 from eastbound I-70. That scenario points to a couple of major red flags. First, we have to consider whether the truck’s load was secured properly. Batteries are heavy, and if they shift during a turn, they can completely destabilize a truck. The laws on cargo securement are clear: the load must be distributed and restrained in a way that keeps the vehicle stable under normal driving conditions. A rollover while merging strongly suggests that something in that process went wrong.

The next issue is speed and handling. Ramps and interchanges are areas where truck drivers need to reduce speed and take turns gradually. A rollover like this almost always indicates the truck was either moving too fast for the curve or the weight of the cargo was poorly balanced, or both. Investigators should be examining the truck’s ECM data (the “black box”), looking at speed and braking patterns and verifying whether the driver was trained to safely handle that kind of load.

It’s also important to examine whether the trucking company provided the right trailer for this type of cargo and whether proper safety checks were conducted before the truck hit the road. I’ve seen cases where companies cut corners by skipping weight checks or failing to inspect cargo securement, and those shortcuts can have devastating consequences.

When a rollover causes this kind of harm — sending two people to the hospital after being trapped in their SUV — it’s not enough to say the truck “lost balance.” Someone put that load on the truck. Someone chose the trailer. Someone trained — or failed to train — the driver. Those decisions matter, and they deserve just as much scrutiny as anything that happened at the crash scene.

If authorities don’t dig into those questions, then they’re not doing a full investigation. They’re just describing the aftermath. And that’s not good enough: not for the people hurt in this crash, and not for the public that shares the road with trucks like this every day.