Pampa, TX — November 19, 2024, Morgan Goodwin was injured as the result of an 18-wheeler accident at around 8:18 p.m. along Hobart Street.
According to initial details about the accident, it took place off the corner of Hobart Street (Highway 70) and Somerville Street.
It appears that 26-year-old Morgan Goodwin was in a Dodge Durango on southbound lanes of Hobart. In a series of events not clear right now, a semi-truck traveling the same direction potentially experienced braking issues, and the vehicles collided.
Morgan Goodwin sustained serious injuries due to the crash. There did not appear to be any other injuries. Right now, additional details about the cause of the accident are unavailable.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Potential issues with a truck’s brakes can certainly happen suddenly, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unpredictable or unavoidable. After any claim of a potential mechanical issue, investigations need to determine if the issue even occurred, and, if so, whether it was due to maintenance issues or a defect. Let me explain why that can present a significant challenge for victims and families.
Authorities are generally ill-equipped to diagnose mechanical issues, especially with complex machines like commercial vehicles. As such, a statement listing braking issues as a possible factor may be little more than repeating what the truck driver told them.
I’ve had plenty of cases, for example, where a trucking company blamed a crash on a sudden, unforeseeable mechanical issue, but our independent investigations proved there were no issues. It was just the truck driver being reckless and their employer trying to cover up for them. It’s likely worth looking into that possibility here.
However, I talk all the time about how little attention people pay to potential mechanical issues after serious crashes, so they shouldn’t be ruled out without clear evidence. It could be that pulling the truck’s maintenance records would show that the vehicle was well maintained, but a manufacturing issue or just some one-in-a-million event caused a catastrophic failure the truck driver and their employer couldn’t have possibly prevented.
A lot of the time, though, we pull maintenance records and find out there were many known issue, but the truck’s owners kicked the can down the road, neglected necessary repairs, and allowed an inevitable mechanical failure to cause a serious crash. Either way, those are both possibilities worth addressing for accountability’s sake and to help ensure the problems don’t cause future accidents.
Like I said, distinguishing between these issues is not within the scope of most police investigations. I rarely take authorities’ statements at face value for that very reason. The hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases I’ve resolved almost always involved experienced independent specialists who could identify mechanical issues, why they happened, and whose actions (if any) allowed them to happen. If those steps aren’t being taken to look into this possible “brake failure,” then there may be important details not getting the attention they deserve.
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