Unity Township, OH — October 25, 2024, one person was injured due to an 18-wheeler accident on State Route 165 at around 2:30 p.m.
An investigation is currently underway into a three vehicle accident involving an 18-wheeler. According to official reports, the accident occurred on State Route 165 near Brushville Road, north of East Palestine.
Authorities say that an 18-wheeler crossed the center line while traveling along the highway. Doing so, a multi-vehicle collision occurred in the oncoming lanes. Due to the crash, one of the other drivers reportedly had critical injuries and was taken from the scene for treatment. There did not appear to be any other injuries.
Currently, authorities seem to blame the crash on the 18-wheeler driver being distracted. This has yet to be confirmed, and no charges or citations have been reported at this time.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
If it’s true that distracted driving led to this crash, then this all may sound pretty open-and-shut. Obviously, if a truck driver isn’t paying attention to the road, that’s reckless behavior. But it’s important to understand why a driver was distracted leading up to a crash. The answer sometimes results in complex situations that simple charges or citations alone can’t properly address.
Let me give an example, I had a case a while back where a truck driver caused a crash while texting and driving. As simple as that was, I wanted to make sure we had all the facts. As we started digging deeper into things, it came to light that the driver was texting his employer. His boss was an incessant micromanager who texted and called drivers at every moment of the day. He was so overbearing that drivers got in trouble if they took too long to respond. Even if drivers were actively out on the roads, the boss just didn’t give a damn about perceived excuses. He wanted things his way, even if it put people in danger, and he essentially threatened employees who took the time to actually be responsible drivers.
If folks just blame a driver and move on, they risk allowing the more serious root cause of the problem to persist. Because of our investigations into the example above, a reckless employer faced consequences when they could have otherwise been let off the hook to continue putting lives at risk. I’ve handled hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases, and many of them were the result of employers like that creating the conditions that made a serious wreck inevitable. Calling out that behavior ensures both the driver who made the mistake and the company that encouraged it are held accountable and clean up their act. That way, victims can both get a just resolution to their situation and can help ensure others won’t have to suffer for the same reasons they did.
Whether or not any such factors contributed to this accident is up to more thorough investigations to determine.
