Los Angeles, CA — July 2, 2025, three people were injured in a truck accident at about 2 a.m. on Interstate 405 south of Getty Center Drive.

Authorities said a semi-truck and two cars were involved in a crash that shut down several southbound lanes of the interstate.

Three people were hospitalized after the crash, according to authorities, including one who lost a leg. Their names have not been made public yet.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Brentwood area crash at this time. The accident is still being investigated.

Commentary

When people hear about a crash involving a semi-truck and multiple vehicles on a major freeway in the middle of the night, especially one as serious as this, the natural question is: How did this happen? At this point, there’s very little public information, but even with the limited details, there are some key areas that investigators, and the public, should focus on.

The crash happened around 2 a.m., a time when fatigue and low visibility are often factors. That raises a few immediate questions: Was the truck driver alert and properly rested? Was visibility compromised in some way? Was anyone speeding or making an unsafe maneuver? We don’t know, but all of those are possibilities that need to be examined through hard evidence, not guesswork.

At a minimum, that means pulling the truck’s engine control module (its “black box”), reviewing GPS and dashcam footage (if available) and checking the driver’s logbooks and cell phone records to see if fatigue, distraction or mechanical failure played a role. If the truck was moving erratically, ECM data could show sharp braking, swerving or sudden acceleration. If it was stopped, then the question becomes: Why was it stopped on the freeway, and did that create a hazard for other drivers?

And even that just scratches the surface. Truck crashes are rarely the result of a single bad decision. More often, they’re the final link in a chain of preventable mistakes. Did the company train the driver properly? Was the truck loaded correctly? Was the driver operating under pressure from dispatch to keep moving through unsafe conditions?

In one case I handled, a company hired a driver with multiple prior terminations and gave her a cursory road test before putting her behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler. When the inevitable crash happened, the evidence showed the company’s lax standards were just as much to blame as the driver’s own conduct. That’s why you can’t just stop at who was holding the steering wheel; you have to ask who put them there and under what conditions.

We don’t yet know whether the truck caused the crash or was struck by another vehicle. But given the severity of the injuries and the fact that multiple vehicles were involved, it's clear that something went seriously wrong. The only way to get honest answers is through a thorough, independent investigation, not just relying on what’s in the initial police report.

Key Takeaways:

• It’s not clear yet what role the truck played in causing the crash, whether it was moving, stopped or struck by another vehicle.
• Investigators should pull black box data, dashcam footage, cell phone records and logbooks to determine what really happened.
• Driver fatigue, distraction or poor training are all possibilities that can’t be ruled out without evidence.
• Trucking company decisions — such as hiring, training and dispatch pressure — may be just as important as the driver’s actions.
• Getting to the truth will require more than a surface-level look; it demands a full accounting of how this crash unfolded.