Whitney Gillespie Killed in Accident Involving Parked Tractor-Trailer on Mays Street in Pendleton, South Carolina

PENDLETON, S.C. — Authorities have identified the driver who was killed in a crash involving a parked tractor-trailer in Anderson County on Friday evening.

According to reports, a passenger vehicle was turning onto Mays Street from Highway 76 when the driver lost control and struck a tractor-trailer that was parked along the roadway.

The driver, identified as 32-year-old Whitney Gillespie, was pronounced dead as a result of the crash. The coroner’s office reported the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.

A passenger in the vehicle was airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

Public roadways are not where trucks should be parked or stopped

Making a turn or traveling along a roadway when a parked tractor-trailer suddenly appears—often barely visible—would catch any driver off guard. We are not accustomed to finding parked trailers on active roadways, and for good reason: they are not meant to be there. When they are, they can create serious and dangerous hazards, as what happened here shows.

Accident reports will often place full blame on the driver who strikes a stationary semi-truck; however, in my experience, these cases require a closer investigation. The key question is whether the truck should have been stopped on the roadside at all.

We recently represented a family whose loved one died after hitting a parked semi-truck. While authorities determined the deceased was responsible because he struck a stationary vehicle, our investigation determined that the truck should not have been there in the first place. We knew from experience that a truck driver’s reason for parking on the side of the road could reveal important details about who was responsible for the accident.

In this case, the truck driver claimed he had pulled over due to a flat tire, which initially appeared to be a legitimate emergency. But our investigation revealed that this “emergency” was entirely preventable. The tire had been under-inflated for months, gradually weakening its structure until failure was inevitable. This wasn’t a sudden emergency: the company had ignored basic maintenance requirements, ultimately creating conditions that would force its driver to park in a dangerous location.

By going beyond the surface-level facts, we uncovered corporate negligence that contributed to this tragic loss of life. The family received not just compensation but answers about what really happened to their loved one.

Ms. Gillespie’s family deserves the same attention. They deserve answers, and they deserve to know whether this crash could have been prevented and whether the truck driver met the basic safety duties required of every commercial operator on the road.

We hope that the Gillespie family finds the answers they need.

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The Ammons Law Firm represents clients nationwide in auto and truck accidents that result in serious injury or death.

Disclaimer: This post is not legal advice. Information contained in this blog was compiled from third-party sources or is the opinion of the author.