Jerome County, ID — December 14, 2025, one person was killed in a truck accident at about 5:45 p.m. on U.S. Route 93 near Jerome.

Authorities said an Audi sedan was heading north when it collided head-on with a southbound Freightliner Cascadia semi-truck.

The Audi driver, a 43-year-old Twin Falls woman, died December 29 from injuries suffered in the crash, according to authorities.

The truck driver was not hurt, authorities said.

Authorities have not released any additional information about the Jerome County crash at this time.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

When people hear about a head-on collision between a car and an 18-wheeler, especially one that proves fatal, they naturally want to know: How could something like this happen? That’s exactly the right question, but it’s also one we don’t have a clear answer to yet.

Depending on how this happened, the questions — and the potential legal responsibilities — change completely. If the truck veered out of its lane, that’s a major red flag. But if the car strayed into oncoming traffic, the picture looks very different. The problem is, right now we don’t know which scenario occurred.

To get clarity, investigators need to go beyond the scene and look at what technology can tell us. The Freightliner’s engine control module (ECM), or “black box,” likely recorded the truck’s speed, braking, steering input and more in the moments before the crash. That can help answer whether the truck driver made any sudden maneuvers, or failed to respond to one. If the truck was equipped with forward-facing or in-cab cameras, even better. That kind of footage can be decisive.

Beyond that, cellphone records might reveal whether either driver was distracted. And depending on lighting conditions at the time of the crash, visibility and headlight use could also be factors.

It’s worth pointing out that even if the truck driver wasn’t injured and didn’t appear to do anything wrong, there are still questions to ask. I’ve handled cases where the driver looked blameless at first glance, but a deeper investigation revealed problems with how they were trained, hired or monitored. In one case, a company put a driver on the road who had already been fired from multiple other jobs. That decision ended up costing someone their life, and the company had no one to blame but themselves.

The goal here isn’t to point fingers without facts. It’s to gather all the evidence needed to figure out what really happened. That’s the only way to ensure the right people are held accountable.

Key Takeaways:

  • It’s still unknown which vehicle crossed the center line, so we don’t yet know who may be at fault.
  • ECM data, dash cam footage and cellphone records will be critical in reconstructing what happened.
  • Trucking company policies, like hiring and driver oversight, may come into play depending on what the evidence shows.
  • Getting to the truth requires more than a crash report; it requires a full, independent investigation.
  • Accountability depends on facts, not assumptions; and right now, there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

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