Mercer County, WV — May 31, 2025, two people were killed and two were injured in a truck accident shortly after 2:30 a.m. along Interstate Highway 77.
According to authorities, three people were occupying a passenger vehicle had had been parked on the right shoulder of the southbound lanes of I.H. 77 in the vicinity of Ingleside Road (State Highway 112) when the accident took place.
Officials indicate that, for as yet unknown reasons, the parked vehicle was struck by a southbound 18-wheeler.
Two of the people who had been in the passenger vehicle reportedly suffered fatal injuries due to the wreck and were declared deceased at the scene. The third occupant of the passenger vehicle sustained serious injuries, as well, according to reports, and the person who had been behind the wheel of the truck received minor injuries.
Additional details pertaining to this incident—including the identities of the victims—are not available at this point in time. The investigation is currently ongoing.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
When people hear that a parked vehicle on the shoulder of the interstate was hit by an 18-wheeler, killing two people and seriously injuring a third, one question stands out: How does a professional driver drift so far out of their lane at highway speed? And right behind that: Was this a momentary mistake—or a complete breakdown in vigilance and control?
According to early reports, the passenger vehicle wasn’t in a lane of traffic. It was stopped on the shoulder—where drivers have every legal right to be in the event of an emergency. The shoulder isn’t a safe place, but it is supposed to be a protected one. That protection only works if other drivers—especially commercial truckers—stay in their lane. So when a truck crosses that boundary, it raises serious red flags.
There are several unanswered questions here that deserve immediate attention. Was the truck driver distracted? Was fatigue a factor? Did the driver drift out of the lane slowly, or was there a sudden swerve? Most of those questions can be answered through the truck’s electronic control module (ECM), which records speed, braking, and steering input leading up to a crash. In-cab cameras, if present, may show where the driver’s attention was—or wasn’t.
It’s also crucial to ask what condition the driver was in. Was this person nearing the end of a long overnight shift? Were they adequately rested? In my experience, early morning crashes like this often involve fatigue or inattention. I’ve handled more than one case where the driver simply nodded off, and the company had no policies—or no enforcement—to keep that from happening.
Beyond the driver, there’s also the matter of the truck’s maintenance and lane-keeping systems. Many commercial trucks today are equipped with lane departure warnings or even corrective steering. If those systems existed but weren’t working—or if the company chose not to use them—those are choices that carry consequences.
This was not a high-speed chase, not a multi-vehicle chain reaction—just a parked car on the shoulder, struck by a truck that shouldn’t have been there. That makes it all the more vital to find out why it happened and who failed to prevent it.
Key Takeaways:
- A parked vehicle on the shoulder being hit by an 18-wheeler raises serious concerns about driver awareness and lane discipline.
- Critical evidence may come from ECM data, in-cab video, and driver logbooks to assess fatigue, distraction, or impairment.
- Shoulder-related crashes often involve long-haul fatigue or inattention—issues that point beyond the driver to company oversight.
- Investigators should examine whether lane-assist or warning technologies were present and functional in the truck.
- A full investigation is needed to determine if this was a tragic error—or the result of preventable failures in training, policy, or planning.
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