Parker County, TX — January 17, 2025, Jesse Clark was injured in a car versus truck accident at approximately 3:00 a.m. along Interstate Highway 20.
According to authorities, 37-year-old Jesse Clark was traveling in a southwest bound Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck on I.H. 20 in the vicinity northeast of U.S. 281 when the accident took place.
Officials indicate that, for as yet unknown reasons, the pickup truck failed to safely maintain its lane of travel. It was consequently involved in a collision with the rear-end of the the trailer of a Freightliner 18-wheeler that was apparently vacant along the side of the highway.
Clark reportedly suffered serious injuries as a result of the wreck. Additional details pertaining to this incident are not available at this point in time. The investigation is currently ongoing.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
When a driver crashes into the rear of a parked 18-wheeler on the side of the highway in the early morning hours, many people assume the person in the smaller vehicle must have simply drifted off course. But legally speaking, that’s only part of the story. The other part—and the one that too often gets overlooked—is whether the truck was parked safely, legally, and visibly. Because under the law, commercial drivers don’t just have a duty to get off the road when something goes wrong—they also have a responsibility to make sure other drivers can see and avoid them.
At 3:00 in the morning, visibility is already low. That’s when lighting, reflective tape, and warning devices become critical. Federal regulations require truck drivers to use hazard flashers immediately after stopping and to deploy warning triangles within 10 minutes of parking on the shoulder. If the truck driver failed to take those steps—or if the reflective tape was worn, the lights weren’t working, or the trailer was partially blocking a travel lane—then the legal responsibility doesn’t fall entirely on the pickup driver.
It’s also worth asking why the truck was parked there in the first place. Was it a mechanical issue? A planned stop? Or was it a case of the driver pulling over for rest in a spot that wasn’t safe? I’ve handled cases where trucks were left parked on the shoulder for reasons that had nothing to do with emergencies—sometimes out of convenience, and other times because the driver ran out of hours or didn’t want to exit the highway. But convenience doesn’t outweigh the legal duty to ensure that the truck is clearly visible and not creating a hazard.
And if this truck was part of a commercial fleet, the company behind it has to be examined. Did they train their drivers on emergency stopping procedures? Did they maintain the vehicle’s lighting and reflectors? Were they monitoring driver hours and encouraging safe stops? These are all factors that can shift liability from the person who hit the truck to the people who failed to keep it from becoming a hazard in the first place.
Getting to the bottom of a crash like this means asking the right questions and refusing to stop at surface-level explanations. Serious wrecks deserve serious investigation, not assumptions. Understanding why the truck was parked, whether it was clearly visible, and whether the company followed safety regulations is key to figuring out what might have happened. Getting clear answers to these questions is the least that can be done to help those affected find the clarity and closure they deserve.
call us 
Email Us 
Text us