Laredo, TX — September 14, 2025, five people were injured in a truck accident at about 10 p.m. in the 7100 block of U.S. Route 59/Bob Bullock Loop.

Authorities said a pickup crashed into a semi-truck that had been stopped at a red light at the intersection of Jacaman Road.

All five people inside the pickup were hospitalized after the crash, according to authorities. The 20-year-old driver and three passengers — a 20-year-old man, 21-year-old woman and 24-year-old woman — were in critical condition, while a 20-year-old woman was in stable condition.

The truck driver was not hurt, authorities said.

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

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear that a pickup slammed into the back of an 18-wheeler at a red light, it’s easy to assume it was just a case of inattentive driving. But those surface-level facts don’t always tell the whole story. The real question isn’t just who hit whom, but why it happened in the first place.

The crash in Laredo sent five people to the hospital, four of them in critical condition. Authorities say the pickup rear-ended a semi-truck that was stopped at a red light. But beyond that, there’s very little information available right now. That leaves a lot of unanswered questions that need to be resolved before anyone can make sense of what really happened here.

For instance, what were the lighting conditions like at that intersection at 10 p.m.? Was the semi-truck’s trailer clearly visible? Were its brake lights working? Did it have retroreflective tape as required by federal law? You’d be surprised how often trailer visibility becomes a central issue in nighttime rear-end collisions. I’ve handled cases where trailers didn’t have proper lighting, and that made all the difference in determining fault.

It’s also not clear whether the truck had recently come to a stop or had been sitting at the light for a while. That timing matters. A sudden stop might raise different questions than a long, stationary wait, especially if there were any mechanical failures or unexpected movements involved.

Then there’s the role of available technology. Does the truck have a functioning engine control module, or ECM, that can show whether the driver braked gradually or suddenly? Was there a dash cam running to show how the pickup approached? Without that kind of data, it’s much harder to get a complete picture.

And let’s not forget the trucking company’s responsibilities. Were the driver’s logs in order? Did the company follow proper hiring and training procedures? In my experience, a lot of these crashes aren’t just about what happened in the final seconds before impact. They’re often about what happened weeks or months earlier, when someone cut corners on safety or sent out a driver who wasn’t fully qualified.

None of this is meant to suggest we know who’s at fault here. We don’t, not yet. But what I do know is that truth doesn’t come from assumptions. It comes from gathering every piece of available evidence and holding it up to the light.

Key Takeaways:

• It’s not yet clear whether the semi-truck was clearly visible or properly equipped with lighting at the time of the crash.
• Black box data, dash cams and trailer inspection records could play a key role in determining how and why the collision happened.
• The length of time the truck had been stopped at the light, and how it stopped, may affect liability.
• An investigation should look beyond the drivers to include the trucking company’s safety practices and hiring protocols.
• Rear-end crashes involving large trucks require more scrutiny than they often receive from initial reports.