Basic Facts

Crash date: September 20, 2026

Crash location: US 2 & 105th Ave. NW, Tioga, Williams County, ND

People involved:

  • Leesville, Louisiana Man, 25
  • Unidentified Truck Driver

Do authorities suspect alcohol played a role in this crash?: Unknown

Are there possible charges or citations?: Unknown

Do authorities suspect a product defect caused the crash?: Unknown

Accident Report

September 20, 2026, a Louisiana man was injured following a semi-truck accident that happened at around 8:00 p.m. on US 2.

Authorities said in preliminary statements that the accident happened south of Tioga at the intersection of US 2 and 105th Avenue NW.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol reported that a 48-year-old man from Leesville, Louisiana, was in a Ram 1500. The Louisiana man was stopped at the intersection waiting on the light when a Peterbilt semi-truck crashed into the Ram.

Due to the accident, the Louisiana man sustained serious injuries. It’s unclear at this time if authorities are considering charges. Investigations are ongoing.

How Did This Accident Occur?

There isn’t clear information about what happened here, but people don’t generally slam into vehicles waiting at a traffic light when drivers pay attention to the road ahead. In my experience, a crash like this will generally involved distracted driving or fatigued driving. Maybe this is some one-in-a-million, unavoidable crash due to a mechanical defect, but that’s up to the evidence to say.

What’s important to keep in mind, though, is that even crashes involving obvious wrongdoing can present unique challenges. It’s important that victims and families have the tools and strategies in place to meet those challenges head-on. Let me give an example of what that may look like.

I handled a crash a while back involving a truck driver who crashed due to fatigue. Evidence showed he’d been behind the wheel for over 20 hours straight. As obviously wrong as that was, we always make sure to find out why a driver did what they did. So, we dug into the driver’s employer, and we found out there was whole work environment encouraging reckless driving.

This company would routinely set ludicrous deadlines. To meet those deadlines, drivers had to speed, make dangerous u-turns, skip rest breaks, put off maintenance, and otherwise cut every corner possible. Drivers who failed to do so risked their jobs. So, inevitably, people were going to get hurt. And had that company’s actions not been brought to light, more people would certainly be hurt in the future.

That’s why thorough investigations are crucial after accidents like this. Even in the likely event someone’s mistake led to the crash, that mistake might not be the beginning and end of the story. So, victims and families should take whatever steps they can to ensure they’re getting the whole story. Once they have all the facts, they can decide what path forward works best for them.

Thoughts or observations? Share them in the comments.

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