Mille Lacs County, MN — October 21, 2025, Alexander Garcia was injured in a car accident at about 7:30 a.m. on U.S. Route 169, which is also known as POW/MIA Memorial Highway.
Authorities said a 2023 Kenworth semi-truck collided with a 2011 Dodge pickup that was crossing from 125th Street to Central Avenue.
Dodge driver Alexander Garcia, 21, of North Branch was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after the crash near Selma, according to authorities.
The truck driver was not hurt, authorities said.
Authorities have not released any additional information about the Mille Lacs County crash at this time.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
When a passenger vehicle is struck by an 18-wheeler while crossing a highway, one of the first things people want to know is: how did this happen? Was the pickup driver careless in entering the road? Was the truck traveling too fast to stop? Did either of them have a clear line of sight? Unfortunately, the available reports don’t answer any of those questions, which means key facts remain up in the air.
What we do know is that a semi-truck and a pickup collided at an intersection where a smaller road, 125th Street, crosses a major highway, U.S. Route 169. Depending on whether the semi had the right of way or the pickup did, entirely different legal questions come into play. If the pickup entered the highway in front of a truck that had no time to stop, that raises one set of concerns. But if the trucker ran a light, was speeding or wasn’t paying attention, that’s a different story altogether.
At this point, there’s no information about what either driver was doing before the collision. That’s not a small detail. That’s the heart of any legitimate investigation. One of the first steps in these cases is to examine evidence that can shed light on what really happened. That means checking dash cams, pulling cell phone records, downloading the truck’s black box (its engine control module) and confirming whether there are in-cab cameras that may have recorded the driver’s behavior in the moments before impact.
Another angle that’s often overlooked is the truck driver’s employment history. Was this a seasoned driver with a clean record, or someone who’d bounced from job to job? In one case I handled, a trucking company hired a driver who had been fired from multiple previous employers. The company gave her a bare-minimum road test and put her behind the wheel of a fully loaded rig. When she caused a serious crash, it wasn’t just her choices that mattered. The company’s hiring shortcuts played a major role too.
So far, there’s no word on what kind of training or oversight the trucking company in this crash provided. That’s another area that needs to be scrutinized. Without real investigation, it’s impossible to say whether this was just a case of bad timing, or a preventable collision with deeper causes.
Key Takeaways:
- It’s unclear from public reports who had the right of way or what led to the collision at the intersection.
- Critical questions remain unanswered about both drivers’ actions before the crash.
- Evidence like black box data, dash cams and cell phone records will be central to understanding what happened.
- Trucking company hiring and training practices should also be examined for potential contributing factors.
- Without a full investigation, any assumptions about fault are premature.
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