Lyon County, KS — May 13, 2024, Richard Becker was injured following a truck accident at around 4:30 p.m. along Prairie Street.
Authorities said in preliminary statements that the collision occurred on the 500 block of Prairie Street, just off U.S. 50/West 6th Avenue.
Investigators said that 59-year-old Richard Becker was in a Chevy Silverado that was going northbound along Prairie Street. From the southbound lane, a crane truck apparently hydroplaned and crossed left of center, crashing into Becker’s vehicle.
Becker was taken from the scene with unspecified injuries. There did not appear to be any other confirmed injuries.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Right now, the cause of the crash remains unspecified. That said, when we hear about a truck hydroplaning, it’s easy to jump to conclusions about what happened—perhaps assuming it was simply a case of bad weather or a driver’s momentary mistake. But in my 30 years of litigating truck accident cases, I’ve learned that the root causes of such accidents can be far more complex and often trace back to decisions made long before the driver ever hit the road.
Most of the time, a vehicle hydroplanes either because a driver is traveling too fast for conditions or because their tires are worn and lose traction. For a commercial vehicle, a truck driver is the last line of defense for those kinds of factors. However, their employer might be responsible for replacing the tires, but they skip maintenance to cut costs or save time. Their employer might also force upon their drivers strict and unreasonable deadlines that lead to drivers cutting corners or driving recklessly to avoid upsetting their employers.
On top of that, an often overlooked aspect of commercial truck wrecks is training and oversight. If a truck driver is inexperienced or shows a history of reckless driving, they may not properly adjust their behavior for hazardous conditions. A responsible employer would ensure their drivers could operate their trucks safely and otherwise root out and correct or terminate drivers who fail to uphold those standards. Less scrupulous companies, though, are desperate just to get bodies behind the wheel. That leads to them skipping vital training, hiring unqualified drivers, or overlooking red flags from a driver who is inevitably going to get someone hurt due to their behavior.
The reason I bring all of this up is two-fold. One, it’s not the sort of thing folks tend to consider. They think a driver is just held accountable, the victims get the help they need, and that’s that. In reality, failing to dig into all of these complex possible factors leaves room for a trucking company to make excuses and shift the blame, creating obstacles between victims and the resolution they deserve. And second, authorities tend to lack the tools and training to dig deeper in their investigations than a simple surface-level examination. That’s why I hope there are steps being taken here to treat this serious truck wreck as more than just a simple mistake. There could be a lot more to this story that needs to be brought to light.
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