Driver Injured in 18-Wheeler Accident on FM 677 in Montague County, TX
Montague County, TX — November 3, 2022, a 29-year-old truck driver was injured in a single-vehicle 18-wheeler accident on FM 677 in Montague County.
Authorities say the incident happened around 1:45 a.m. on FM 677 near Littlefield Road. Preliminary investigation suggests a Peterbilt semi-truck was towing a trailer south on the roadway when they approached a curve. Investigators allege the truck drove straight through the curve and off the road, then spun and rolled over into a nearby pasture.
The truck driver was seriously injured in the crash. When interviewed he told officers something "popped" in the truck as he approached the curve and the steering wheel began to shake. He alleged he lost control of the truck and couldn't prevent it leaving the road.
No further information is currently available.
Officers at the scene couldn't verify the truck driver's story about losing steering in that curve, as the truck was too badly damaged to tell what went wrong and when. However, any allegation of a mechanical failure in a big rig should definitely be taken seriously and investigated as thoroughly as possible. If on-site police couldn't make heads or tails of it, I hope they got a forensic expert in there to take a closer look. Whether the driver's story was confirmed or disproved, it would still be a vital step forward in determining exactly how the wreck happened.
I'm not saying I disbelieve the victim; in fact, in my experience truck malfunctions are far more common than many would believe. There's no denying there's a lot of ways things can go wrong in any motor vehicle, and just because 18-wheelers are big doesn't mean they're inherently safe. Unfortunately some of their biggest problems are due to manufacturers refusing to make design changes to better protect truckers from serious, even fatal, injuries.
To be clear, I don't know more than public information can say about what happened here. If there are concerns that the truck malfunctioned, I just hope that gets appropriate attention from both authorities and the truck's owners—in that order. The most important thing is to learn and verify the whole story; anything else depends on what that story is.
