Brazoria County, TX — October 7, 2024, Doreen and Annette Cook were seriously injured in an accident with a commercial truck on State Highway 35 in Brazoria County.
According to authorities, the incident happened just before 4:00 p.m. on Highway 35 near County Road 381. Preliminary investigation suggests Doreen Cook was driving an Acura SUV north on the highway, some distance ahead of a Peterbilt semi-truck with no trailer.
Investigators say that traffic ahead of the two vehicles was slowed for construction flaggers. Cook slowed the Acura in response, but the truck driver allegedly failed to control speed on approach. Cook noticed the truck and steered onto the shoulder to avoid a collision, but the truck driver mirrored the move and rear-ended the Acura on the shoulder.
Doreen Cook, 59, and her passenger Annette Cook, 82, were seriously injured in the crash. The Peterbilt driver received minor injuries. Because both drove onto the shoulder, no other vehicles in traffic were affected.
No further information is currently available.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Authorities said they were considering a potential citation for failure to control speed against the truck driver. However, it’s always important to consider if a crash like this was really the result of just one individual’s actions. I’ve handled hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases, and it would surprise folks to know how often this sort of crash begins long before a trucker gets behind the wheel.
Trucking companies often play a significant part in how their drivers behave on the road. If they fail to promote safe practices—or worse, encourage unsafe ones—their negligence may create fertile ground for major crashes. Take driver fatigue, for example: Trucking companies often impose tight delivery schedules or incentivize cutting corners to maximize drive time. That pressures drivers to work long hours and skip breaks (which to be clear is illegal). Slowed reaction times, poor decisions, and fully falling asleep at the wheel are all common signs of fatigue, and all of them can have devastating consequences. Responsible companies understand that safety must be prioritized over deadlines, but too many others decide to roll the dice.
That’s not to say I know that fatigue was an issue in Brazoria County, only that it’s important to pinpoint why the truck didn’t slow or stop. In many cases it was just a poor choice on the driver’s part, but sometimes more digging shows that was a symptom and not the disease. Authorities aren’t always keen to look beyond the “bad guy” in the truck cab, so a lot of companies only clean up their act when accident victims take steps to see they answer for their actions. That’s why it wouldn’t surprise me if there was still more to this story even authorities haven’t touched on yet.
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