Joshua Hill Killed in Single-Vehicle Accident on Grand Ave in Fort Smith, AR
Fort Smith, AR — January 11, 2023, 37-year-old Joshua Hill died in a single-vehicle accident on Grand Avenue in Fort Smith.
Authorities say the incident happened around 3:50 a.m. on the 1400 block of Grand Avenue at North E Street. Preliminary investigation suggests Hill was driving east on the roadway when he may have lost control for unknown reasons. His vehicle left the travel lanes and crashed into a traffic light pole at E Street.
Hill suffered fatal injuries in the crash.
The investigation is ongoing. No further information is currently available.
Over my career I've seen countless single-vehicle accidents that were out of the driver's hands for one reason or another. However, after many of those same accidents I've encountered folks who saw "single-vehicle" in a headline and quickly decided that meant the driver was to blame. Let me explain why jumping to such a hasty conclusion is likely a bad idea.
Many accidents are actually caused by a number of things happening at once. Could one of those things be a driver mistake? Maybe. Could there also be more to the story? Absolutely. Wrecks happen every day due to road hazards, low visibility (the Fort Smith accident happened at night in foggy conditions), vehicle malfunctions and defects, and many other factors, and rather than blaming carelessness out of the gate it's important to account for all those possibilities as well.
A few vague sentences in a news bulletin rarely do justice to the complexity of a crash, and I think most would agree that someone losing his life is more than enough reason to take a closer look and learn exactly how and why that occurred. He deserves the benefit of the doubt as a full investigation continues, and his loved ones deserve any and every answer it uncovers.
