Moretown, VT — April 11, 2024, Rosetta Weber was killed following a commercial truck accident at around 7:00 a.m. on Route 100.
Initial details released by the Vermont State Police say the crash happened as 39-year-old Rosetta Weber was going northbound along Route 100. From the southbound lane, authorities allege a tractor-trailer driver went left of center, crashing head-on with Weber. Weber died as a result.
Preliminary details from the time of the crash said that the tractor-trailer driver faced charges for gross negligent operation with death resulting. As of May 20, more recent reports say the truck driver is also facing a charge for involuntary manslaughter.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Right now, additional details about the crash can’t be confirmed. However, I’ve seen some sources indicate there were witnesses who saw the tractor-trailer prior to the crash behaving erratically. This included allegations that the tractor-trailer veered from its lane repeatedly leading up to the collision. Is that true? If so, it makes me wonder whether or not there were signs long before the crash ever happened that this driver was going to cause an accident. Let me explain why I say that.
I’ve handled hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases over the years. Generally speaking, an isolated, sudden mistake rarely causes a serious accident. More often than not, there is a pattern of behavior that a reasonably prudent trucking company would recognize as a risk.
For example, let’s consider the claims the truck driver here was veering in and out of their lane. Short of something highly unusual like an unexpected medical episode, why might that happen? It could be a driver is looking at their phone or messing with their radio. Fatigue and lack of training and experience are also possible causes. There could also be maintenance issues or improperly loaded cargo making the truck difficult to control. Pretty much all of those possible factors are things employers either encourage by rewarding drivers who cut corners (or inversely punishing drivers who prioritize safety over speed) or overlook and allow to continue unchecked because they’re either too lazy or too inept to keep their drivers in line.
Again, these are just hypothetical examples, but they’re all things I’ve seen lead to deadly truck wrecks, and they’re almost always foreseeable and preventable. So if similar factors led to this crash, was it foreseeable, and could someone have prevented it? That’s what I have yet to see authorities address. Maybe this all was a single person’s reckless mistake. Maybe this is some one-in-a-million, unavoidable misunderstanding. My concern, though, is the reported charges against the truck driver will be seen as the end of the story when there could be someone else out there who also needs to be held responsible for a woman losing her life.
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