Burke County, GA — August 21, 2025, Wanda Saxon and Linwood Saxon were killed in a truck accident at about 1:50 p.m. on U.S. Route 25 near Waynesboro.
Authorities said a vehicle was turning onto U.S. 25 from Coleman-Young Road with it was hit by a southbound semi-truck.
Both people who were inside the vehicle, 71-year-old Wanda Williams Saxon and 78-year-old Linwood Douglas Saxon, died after being taken to an area hospital, according to authorities.
The truck driver was taken to the hospital for evaluation after the crash, authorities said.
Authorities have not released any additional information about the Burke County crash at this time.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
When folks read that a couple was killed in a collision between their vehicle and an 18-wheeler, one of the first questions that comes to mind is: How could something like this happen? The reports so far say the vehicle was turning onto U.S. 25 from Coleman-Young Road when it was hit by a southbound semi-truck. But they don’t answer the key question: Why did the truck hit them?
At this point, it’s not clear whether the vehicle had already entered the lane when the truck approached or if the truck had right-of-way and the car pulled into its path. That distinction matters, a lot. Without knowing who had the legal right to be in the lane, we can’t draw conclusions about who’s responsible. But we can talk about the kind of evidence it takes to figure that out.
One place to start is the semi-truck’s black box, the engine control module. It can tell us how fast the truck was going, whether the driver hit the brakes and even how long the truck had been in motion before the crash. That’s important because if the driver had been on the road too long without rest, fatigue could be a factor. Likewise, if he was going too fast for conditions or failed to slow down when a vehicle entered the roadway, that could point to driver error.
We also don’t know if the truck had dash cams or in-cab cameras, which are increasingly common in the trucking industry. Those devices don’t just show what happened. They show why it happened. Was the driver distracted? Was he following too closely? Did he have a clear view of the road? Video can answer questions that even police reports sometimes leave out.
Another layer involves the company that put the driver on the road in the first place. Did they train him properly? Did they vet his driving record before hiring him? I once worked a case where a trucking company hired a driver who had been fired from multiple previous jobs. Their so-called “road test” lasted just 20 minutes, barely enough time to get the engine warm.
That’s the kind of broader accountability that only comes from digging into hiring records, training policies and corporate oversight. It’s not about shifting blame. It’s about finding out who had the chance to prevent this and failed to act.
Key Takeaways:
- Reports don’t yet clarify whether the turning vehicle or the truck had the right-of-way, which is critical to determining fault.
- Black box data, dash cam footage and cell phone records are essential to understanding the truck driver’s actions before the crash.
- In-cab cameras, if present, may show whether distraction or driver fatigue played a role.
- The trucking company’s hiring and training practices could become a major focus of any serious investigation.
- True accountability depends on collecting and analyzing evidence from multiple sources, not just relying on surface-level crash reports.
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