UPDATE (September 5, 2025): Reported identified the victim killed in the accident as 39-year-old Jane Ewing.
Milwaukee, WI — August 12, 2025, one person was killed as the result of an 18-wheeler accident at around 11:00 a.m. on St. Paul Avenue.
According to initial details about the accident, it happened at the intersection of Broadway and St. Paul.
Investigators said that a 39-year-old was on foot at the time and was walking across the intersection. While doing so, a tractor-trailer appeared to be making a turn onto eastbound St. Paul Ave. While doing so, the truck ran over the pedestrian.
The pedestrian was killed due to the accident. The truck remained at the scene to speak with authorities. No further information is available.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Details are still under investigation here, but the images I’m seeing in the news show what appears to be a very open and busy intersection with plenty of markings and signals. Generally speaking, any reasonably prudent professional driver going through a crossing like this would be super vigilant of their surroundings knowing there could be pedestrians or cyclists around their vehicle. That’s why it’s important that accident reconstructionists look beyond simply who had the right-of-way and answer why the truck driver didn’t see the pedestrian.
To be clear, there could be a very reasonable answer. Even the most careful and attentive truck drivers can only do so much. For example, people sometimes cross roads when they shouldn’t in a position where even a prudent truck driver doing everything right can’t avoid a collision. It would be ridiculous in those situations to hold the driver accountable for something they couldn’t avoid.
However, if evidence shows that a pedestrian had the right-of-way, or if details show that a reasonably prudent driver would have had no problem seeing and avoiding the victim, the law expects reasonably prudent professionals to avoid those accidents. A driver that fails in that regard would have to explain why exactly they failed to avoid an otherwise avoidable accident.
Whatever ultimately happened here, a good first step would be looking at the surrounding businesses for security cameras or pulling footage from any traffic cameras. That data is often time-sensitive, and if authorities were so focused on securing the scene that they failed to check for video evidence, it might be just a matter of time before crucial information is lost or overwritten.
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