Montgomery County, TX — November 27, 2023, one person was killed and one was injured following an 18-wheeler accident at 4:00 a.m. along F.M. 1314.
Details released by Caney Creek and Montgomery County officials indicate the collision happened just off the corner of F.M. 1314 (Conroe Porter Road) and Exxon Road, north of Highway 242.
According to current information in the news, a driver was in a trash compactor truck traveling along F.M. 1314 at the Crystal Creek Bridge. While doing so, an oncoming 18-wheeler reportedly crossed the center line and crashed into the trash truck. This led to the 18-wheeler catching fire and the trash truck coming to a stop along the side of the bridge.
Due to the collision, the driver of the trash truck sustained fatal injuries. The driver of the 18-wheeler was taken from the scene in apparently critical condition. Right now, identities are unavailable, and the factors contributing to the crash remain unconfirmed.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
This early in the morning, I know a lot of people will be quick to assume fatigue played a role in this crash. While I would not rule out unavoidable factors without evidence (tire blowout, medical emergency, mechanical issue, etc.), that is an unfortunately common factor in crashes like this. But even those situations can prove to be a lot more complex than folks may realize.
Let me give an example from a serious commercial truck wreck I handled a while back. It happened because a truck driver had been behind the wheel for over 20 hours straight, which is far beyond reasonable, let alone legal. But while authorities were content to simply charge the driver, we kept digging and found out that a significant portion of the blame belonged on the driver’s employer.
It turned out that driver’s employer essentially paid drivers more money when they cut corners, broke the rules, and otherwise did everything they could to do as much work as fast as possible. They had no regard for safety regulations nor the well-being of others—including their own employees. They were willing to risk lives for their bottom line. It was inevitable someone would get hurt, and that’s exactly what happened. Perhaps more importantly, had those issues not been brought to light, it would be inevitable that more people would get hurt.
I’m not saying I have reason to believe anything like that happened here (though it’s one of many possibilities), and to be clear, investigators have not suggested any kind of fault at the time of writing. My point is that folks tend to jump to the easiest explanation when they see authorities describe a seemingly straight-forward situation that leads to another’s death. Maybe the simplest explanation will be the correct one once all the evidence is available. But I’ve learned over the years that victims and families don’t want an easy explanation; they want to know the whole truth. I’d be surprised to find these preliminary reports did anything beyond scratching the surface of what all happened here.
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