Miami, FL — August 28, 2025, 13 people were injured in a truck accident at about 11:30 p.m. on southbound Interstate 95 near Ives Dairy Road.
Authorities said a semi-truck crashed into multiple vehicles that were stopped in traffic, causing additional chain-reaction crashes. In all, 18 vehicles were involved in the crash.
Thirteen people were hospitalized with unspecified injuries after the crash, according to authorities. Sixteen other people were treated at the scene.
The truck driver is expected to face criminal charges related to the crash, authorities said.
Authorities have not released any additional information about the Miami-Dade County crash at this time.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
When people hear about a semi-truck slamming into stopped traffic on a major interstate, injuring over a dozen people and damaging nearly 20 vehicles, one question tends to come up first: How in the world does something like that happen?
It’s a fair question. From what authorities have said so far, the crash happened late at night and involved a semi barreling into vehicles that were already stopped, likely due to congestion. The impact set off a chain reaction that affected 18 vehicles and left 13 people hospitalized. Officials say the truck driver may face criminal charges, but that’s about all we know so far.
What hasn’t been explained is just as important as what has. Why didn’t the truck stop? Was the driver distracted? Asleep? Impaired? Or was the truck itself experiencing mechanical issues? Without answers to those questions, it’s impossible to know whether this was gross negligence, equipment failure or something else entirely.
In my experience litigating similar crashes, getting the real story requires more than a police report. It means locking down the evidence before it disappears. That includes the truck’s engine control module (ECM), which acts like a black box for commercial trucks. That data can tell us if the brakes were ever applied, how fast the truck was going and whether cruise control was engaged. In-cab cameras, if available, can show whether the driver was paying attention or looking at a cell phone.
And speaking of phones: has anyone pulled the driver’s call or text logs? That’s often the missing piece in cases like this. I’ve handled more than a few where cell phone use — either calls, texts or navigation apps — was the difference between a routine delivery and a multi-car pileup.
But we can’t stop with the driver. When a truck driver rear-ends a line of stopped traffic, the spotlight also needs to swing toward the trucking company. Was the driver working beyond legal hours? Did the company have realistic delivery schedules, or were they pressuring the driver to keep moving? What kind of training and vetting did they provide before putting this driver behind the wheel?
I once had a case where a driver with a history of getting fired from other trucking jobs got hired by a company that gave her a 20-minute road test and called it a day. The crash that followed was no mystery. It was baked into the system that hired her. In that case, the real breakdown wasn’t just behind the wheel, it was in the office that gave her the keys.
When a crash involves this many people and this much damage, there’s usually more than one contributing factor. The real work is figuring out which ones matter, and who’s ultimately responsible.
Key Takeaways:
- It’s unclear why the semi-truck failed to stop. Driver error, distraction or mechanical failure are all possible.
- ECM data, in-cab footage and cell phone records are key to understanding what the driver was doing before the crash.
- Trucking company policies and hiring practices should also be scrutinized, not just the driver’s actions.
- Criminal charges may point to serious negligence, but civil investigations often uncover additional layers of fault.
- Independent evidence gathering is essential for a complete and accurate picture of what caused the crash.
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