• January 28, 2022

Jeanene Upton Killed in Truck Accident in Wood County, TX

UPDATE (February 3, 2022): Authorities report that Jeanene Upton succumbed to fatal injuries as a result of the crash. Right now, additional details about the accident are unavailable.

Wood County, TX -- January 13, 2022, Jeanene Upton was injured after an accident where Upton's vehicle crashed with a commercial truck.

Officials said that the crash took place at around 5:30 p.m. along US Highway 80 near FM 1799.

In their initial reports, authorities said that 88-year-old Jeanene Upton was in a Ford Escape traveling westbound on the highway. Witnesses told investigators that visibility was an issue as the sun was setting. Police believe that led to Upton failing to control speed and hitting a semi-truck diverting traffic to the left lane.

As a result of the crash, Upton had reportedly incapacitating injuries. Authorities did not give any additional details.

Commentary on Jeanene Upton Truck Accident in Wood County

On this blog, I often say something along the lines of, "Drivers deserve some benefit of the doubt until all the facts become clear." That can annoy some people because they look at reports like this and think my hesitance to draw conclusions is just trying to find someone else to blame for a driver's mistakes. That's not really why I do it. I look into many crashes that folks come to me about only to find evidence showing that police got it right, and there's nothing really to do for the victims. However, there are also times where unusual factors slipped through the cracks which only came to light after more thorough investigations.

Jeanene Upton Truck Accident Wood County, TX

For example, I was discussing a recent crash with a colleague in which a woman rear-ended a truck while texting and driving. While that seemed pretty straight-forward, investigators found that her injuries were unusual severe given the relatively low speed of the crash. So what went wrong? Well, it turned out she had a defective airbag. So while she may have caused the crash, her injuries were actually the result of a manufacturing issue she had no control over.

To be clear, I'm not saying that happened here. But when folks just take preliminary reports at face value, important details like that can slip through the cracks. That's why I tell folks not to jump to conclusions, and I have yet to see specific details here that make me think otherwise.

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