Ep. 79 – Where Are Truck Wrecks Happening in Indiana?

David Craig: And what’s really scary is Indiana is in the top 10 of the deadliest states in the Union for fatalities in truck accidents; we’re number 10. And Ohio and Illinois are also in the top 10. So in the top 10, three of them are right here where most of us travel through. I’m Attorney Dave Craig, Managing Partner and one of the founders of the law firm of Craig, Kelley & Faultless. I’ve represented people who have been seriously injured or who have had a family member killed in a semi or other big truck wreck for over 30 years. Following the wreck, their lives are chaos. Often, they don’t even know enough about the process to ask the right questions. It is my goal to empower you by providing you with the information you need to protect yourself and your family. In each and every episode, I want to interview top experts and professionals that are involved in truck wreck cases. In the Ask David episodes of After the Crash, we switch things up. Instead of me asking questions, I answer the questions. Nothing’s off limits and they ask me about truck safety, about truck accidents, about semi-truck litigation, about commercial motor vehicle wrecks. You name it, I talk about it. This is After the Crash.

Ashley Napier: Welcome to a March edition of After the Crash Podcast, the Ask David version. My name is Ashley Napier, I’m the litigation supervisor here, and I’m joined by none other than David Craig. Welcome!

David Craig: Nice to be on my own podcast, especially with you as the host!

Ashley Napier: Yes.

David Craig: And my dog Scout is in the background.

Ashley Napier: Yeah, she’s always a star here. She has a special place on the couch.

David Craig: Yeah.

Ashley Napier: So this month, I wanted to do a quarterly update with Craig, Kelley & Faultless things. We have two that stand out to me, pretty exciting things that have happened in the first quarter of 2026 and I wanted to talk about them with you. I think one of the greatest things is we have launched a Semi Crash Map. It’s an interactive website that’s free for users, and it dives into real-time data that anybody can look at with semi crashes in the state of Indiana. Can you talk to me a little bit in detail about that and where the idea came from?

David Craig: Yeah. I think that is one of the biggest, is a major accomplishment at the firm. Pretty excited about it. The idea came actually in a Mexican restaurant drinking a margarita, quite frankly, down in Texas is when I first came up with the idea. And it’s taken me a while to figure out how to do it and I wasn’t capable of doing it. So the firm hired a computer program person, so our Principle Senior Program Software Developer. So once we hired him, things took off. Nick Perrin has been working on this project, getting it ready, and we launched it this month and I’m so excited about it. As I think most listeners know, or if you’re a new listener, you may not know, but Craig, Kelley & Faultless, we handle a lot of truck cases. My partner Scott Faultless and I are both board-certified in truck accident law. We represent victims of truck accidents, and I have been doing it for 40 years. So we not only protect victims, we try to educate the public on things they need to know in order to handle their own or to hire other lawyers. And also, we take an active role in legislation, lobbying, testifying. My partner just got done testifying in front of Congress here in the Indiana State House. So we do a lot of different things to try to make the road safer. So this project is near and dear to my heart because it provides information to the public about truck accidents that are occurring in the state of Indiana, and we’ll be rolling it out throughout the nation. I think most people don’t realize that the statistics that we have about truck accidents, they’re outdated. They are old information. So that old information is helpful, but for example the federal government, the stuff they’re putting out right now is 2023 information. So they don’t have any information out there on 2024, the federal government doesn’t have anything out there on 2025. The most recent stuff is 2023, and we know that in 2023, there were over 5,400 truck-related fatalities in the United States. We know that there were over 150,000 people that were injured in truck accidents in the United States. We know that there were 528,000 trucks that were involved in accidents throughout the United States. And what’s really scary is Indiana is in the top 10 of the deadliest states in the Union for fatalities in truck accidents; we’re number 10. And Ohio and Illinois are also in the top 10. So in the top 10, three of them are right here, right here where most of us travel through. So that’s scary. So a lot of people are dying, the rates, they increase. The number of truck wrecks and the number of fatalities and the number of injured people have continued to increase over time. And I felt like … I always wanted to know, what about the state of Indiana? What about each state? And how do we do it in real-time? How do we … Instead of looking back two years ago at the data, can we find, is there a way that we could track it in more closer to the real-time than old data? So that’s what we did. We designed a map that will track truck wrecks in real-time. But also, we’ll backfill it so we’ll have the information. So for example, 2025, you can go on our site and you can find out information about 2025 accidents and you’ll see some about the current wrecks that have happened in this year. But that’s something that never has been available and for an interactive map; you can click on it, click on each icon, find out information about that accident and find out information that maybe I think is helpful or tips that I think is helpful. But that’s the map project.

Ashley Napier: Yeah, it’s really exciting. I think that at least it was shocking to me to learn that all of the information that comes out from the federal government is backdated so far. You just don’t think about that, but it does make sense once you say it. So I think having this is critical. And not only is it good for us as a firm in the lobbying efforts that we do or when we’re working on cases, but it also is good for the public or other law firms to know what’s going on. And I think you touched on it in your recent blog about the map project that goes into a little bit more detail, but we truly are the crossroads of America, and it shows in the number of commercial motor vehicle wrecks a year. And I think that it will continue to increase, unfortunately, and it’s just due to, not the great truck drivers out there that make everything possible, but the bad truck drivers that are causing fatalities.

David Craig: And I think people … What I want to know is, okay, if I’m sitting at home and we know that Indiana’s the 10th deadliest state for truck wrecks, what can I do about it? Okay. Well, so maybe lobbying in maybe reaching out to your senators and congressmen, talking about the issues and being advised, fully aware of what the issues are. But in addition, just more practical. I have kids, I raised three kids. I have six grandkids. How do I protect them? What do I do? Well, I know as a truck accident attorney and someone who handles truck accidents, I know certain things that I would do differently and I do do differently than I did before I started practicing law 40 years ago. So for example, what day is the most deadly day to be on the highways in the state of Indiana? I bet you most of my listeners that are listening right now don’t know what day is the most deadly day. What time?

Ashley Napier: I don’t know that.

David Craig: What time is the most deadly? What highways are the most deadly? Where are most of these wrecks happening and what day? Does it make any difference? And you can go on our map and find that out. Let’s say your kids travel on I-70 between Indianapolis and Terre Haute to go to Indiana State visits. Is there a better day to travel on I-70 or US-40? Which way do you go? Is there a better way? What if your family lives in Richmond and you travel to Indianapolis to go to work and you’re traveling on I-70? Is there a way, is there a day that’s more safe than other days? How about I-65 going into Chicago? Going up north? Going south to Louisville? Are there days that are more … And you know what? There are! There are days that are more dangerous than other days. There are times that are more dangerous than other times. And that’s what I love about our map, is that you can look it up and you can look on each individual highway and you can look for, let’s say you wanted to look at data from January 1st through December 31st of 2025, so it gives you a whole year. And you can look and you can see where the truck wrecks are in your city, in your county, in your state or where your family is traveling. And I just love the fact that you can look at that and, sure, it’s not perfect. You can still get killed on a day that’s not one of the most dangerous days. But there may be a reason that, year after year, we keep seeing the same days show up as the most deadly days.

Ashley Napier: Yeah.

David Craig: So that’s what excites me about it, is that I have that data, I have that information. I can advise my own family. I know that more truck wrecks happen during construction zones, when [it’s] construction time. Because what happens is that traffic backs up and trucks are going full speed, and if they’re not paying attention, if they’re distracted, if they’re fatigued, if their equipment’s not good and their brakes don’t work properly, that you’re going to have a lot of rear end collisions. And I also know that that happens when there’s wrecks or other stuff that slows up traffic on highways or interstates. I also know that road weather conditions are bad, and when the roads are bad or dangerous, that that can create additional wrecks and we see that. And you can see that in the statistics. You can see in the winter months when there’s bad snow, you can look and see a week where we got heavy snow in Indiana, you’re going to see a lot of wrecks. But do you know what? There’s certain highways that are worse than others. There are certain highways where the wind blows over and they ice up quicker.

Ashley Napier: Yeah.

David Craig: So those are all things that I want the people to know. I want the consumers to know. I want the public to understand, and I want you to know all about this. I’m excited that it’s in Indiana. I’m excited that we’re going to take it from every state in the United States and it’s going to be available. It’s patent pending, so we worked hard to get this process down so that we can update it regularly and take the information. But I’m extraordinarily excited about it. So that was definitely, for quarter one, something that really took us a long time to do, but I’m really proud of the fact that with Nick’s help, with your … I have people in this office, Craig, Kelley & Faultless, that all participated in helping us get this off. Impact Video, the Impact Video Group that does all of our videos, they helped us get this off the ground. So it took a giant team a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of effort to get there and I would encourage everybody to go and look at it at semicrashmap.com. Semicrashmap.com and you can see for yourself. And click on it, click on it. I was looking. You’re going to see some stuff makes more sense. Okay, okay, Indianapolis is going to have a lot of wrecks. You got 465, you got 70, you got 65 all coming together so you’re going to have a lot of truck accidents. But let’s say you live in North Vernon, Indiana. Well, unfortunately I-50, or US-50 has a lot more wrecks than what you would think. And if you look at US-50 across the state, it goes all the way across the country. I actually had a truck case out in Missouri on I-50 that I represented somebody for. But unfortunately, there’s a lot of wrecks on US-50 down throughout the state of Indiana. So there are some places that you wouldn’t necessarily think, is this a bad area or a dangerous area, and you can go on the map and you can look in your own vicinity, your own city or own area and see, okay, is this a bad area. What highways, what roadways, what days, what months are the ones that I should watch out for? Or more importantly, I should tell my kids and my grandkids about.

Ashley Napier: Yeah. I actually, I have family in Columbus, Ohio, so I often travel Interstate 70 going out there. So looking at the map, I see it riddled with wrecks. So it definitely makes me want to reconsider my route, but I don’t know if US-40 is much better. Then I have family up north, so I go 65-North and around that Lafayette area, looking at the map, it’s also challenging. But it just makes you heighten, not necessarily that you’re going to need to change your route if there’s not a better alternative, but it makes me become a better driver because I’m also driving my five-year-old. It’s just such a fantastic tool that I’m really glad we were able to roll out in quarter one of 2026. I see nothing but amazing things coming from it. I think that is a really good segue into the second part of really exciting Craig, Kelley & Faultless news, is that we have opened up another office location. We are in Evansville now. And David, can you talk a little bit about what drove us to the Evansville area?

David Craig: Yeah. So we have offices throughout Indiana, and we have offices, actually over in St. Louis, Missouri, as well. But we had cases where we were getting hired for truck accidents down in the Evansville area. So it just made sense to us that if you’re going to have cases in a certain area, it makes sense to have an office location where you can meet people at. Where you can prepare if you have to go to trial, you have a office to work out of. You can do focus groups if you need to work the focus groups out of. But anyway, it just made sense to us. We have, like I said, some pretty serious truck accident cases in that neck of the woods. And unfortunately, if you look at the map, you’ll see there’s quite a few truck accidents that happen down in that area. So, Scott Faultless and I are board-certified in truck accident law, there’s only four board-certified lawyers in the state of Indiana at this time, the time of this video. There’s probably less than 100 in the whole country. So, we thought, “Let’s go down to Evansville, let’s open an office there. Let’s provide services there for truck accidents.” So our office is at, we just got it so I’m going to have to look at their address because I don’t have it memorized. But it’s 1343 North Tudor Lane, Suite B. So we’re opening up there. I think it’ll be open in March. They just finished painting it and putting new carpet down, so we’ll be putting the furniture in next. We’ll be open for business in March, so we’re excited about going to Evansville. We’re excited to … We have offices in Avon, Richmond, Batesville, South side of Indianapolis and we’re headquartered in Indianapolis. But we represent people throughout the state of Indiana and unfortunately, truck wrecks, Indiana is number 10th deadliest and has the most wrecks, so we have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, we can educate folks and prevent some of that. But we’re excited about entering down in Evansville.

Ashley Napier: Yeah. I’ve never actually been to Evansville, so I would love to go down, check out the new office. If there’s anybody from Evansville listening, I would love to know some neat things to do there, maybe food places to check out. If you want to leave them in the comments, that would be fantastic, so I can plan my trip accordingly because food is very important, as well. Or if there’s cool charity events happening, that would also be wonderful.

David Craig: Good barbecue restaurants.

Ashley Napier: Barbecue places.

David Craig: Don’t forget me.

Ashley Napier: Barbecue, hot dogs, also leave those in the comment section.

David Craig: I think it’s exciting. Our goal, for you folks in Evansville that might be listening, our firm is a unique firm. We have 10 lawyers. We have about 50 staff people. Most of the lawyers here were law clerks, if not all of them were law clerks, and worked their way up. I’m really proud. One of the things that also happened this quarter was that we were recognized, nine of our lawyers out of 10 were registered as Super Lawyers. That’s a peer review thing, so other lawyers vote, and judges. All of my lawyers have been, at one time or another, there’s not a lawyer in my office that hasn’t been recognized as either the Best Lawyers; I think every single lawyer has been recognized as Best Lawyers this year. Most of my lawyers have been recognized by one thing or the other. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been in the top 50 [Indiana Super Lawyers] for the last several years, which is a big honor and speaks highly of the people that I surround myself with because that’s what helps me get by. But that was another accomplishment this year, was that again, our attorneys in our office continue to rank. But one of the things we try to do is make a positive difference in the lives of our clients, the lives of our employees, but also in the lives of the folks in the communities in which we practice. So we open an office in your town, and you’re in Avon, or you’re in Richmond, or you’re in Batesville, or you’re in Indianapolis or you’re in Evansville and you got something that you think that would be helpful, something that we could do, then reach out to us. Like Ashley said, you can leave it in the comment section or reach out to my office. You can reach out to Ashley, you can reach out to Suzanne, our office manager. You can reach out to my Operations Manager, Dana Craig. You can always reach out to me. My email is dcraig@ckflaw. You’re always welcome to send an email to me as well. But we do want to do things, we do try to do things. We do bike helmet giveaways. We do educational things where we try to inform the public about, especially trucking issues, truck safety. We do seminars, conferences. But we do public seminars just for the public as well. So, anyway, don’t be afraid to reach out to us.

Ashley Napier: Yeah, absolutely. I would love to hear from you. I am in the office a little bit before 8:00 until 5:00 every single day and I will always take your call or give you a call back if I am not available. But you can also kick us an email at afterthecrashpodcast@ckflaw.com. That is monitored by myself and Suzanne, our office manager. So, we would love to hear from you, as David said, and you can always reach us there, and we’ll get you an email back. I don’t think I have anything more, unless you have any more fantastic news to share?

David Craig: No. Check out our Semi Crash Map at semicrashmap.com, and check it out. If you happen to be an attorney, we do have attorneys that listen to this although that’s not the focus, we design it for every average day people. But if you happen to be … I’ve had people reach out from all over the country and some pretty neat things. We had somebody here this quarter reached out to a support group that we had on our podcast and the support group reached out to me and said, “Hey, somebody up in Michigan reached out to them and they’re helping them out,” and that we did some good for that particular person, that particular family. So don’t hesitate to reach out, but we do that. But if you happen to be an attorney and you’re looking at your state and you think, “Well, this is pretty cool,” email me and maybe we can make this happen in your state as well.

Ashley Napier: Yeah, absolutely. It’s definitely something that can scale, so it’s all very exciting stuff. I’ll have to think of another April episode. If anybody has any burning questions to ask David, you can send them to me, and I do take bribes, but that’s neither here nor there. Now, it was wonderful getting to chat with you about some amazing things this quarter. I don’t have anything else right now, but thank you guys for tuning in.

David Craig: This is David Craig and you’ve been listening to After the Crash. If you’d like more information about me or my law firm, please go to our website ckflaw.com. Or if you’d like to talk to me, you can call 1-800-ASK-DAVID. If you would like a guide on what to do after a truck wreck, then pick up my book Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for Victims and Their Families, which is available on Amazon or you can download it for free on our website ckflaw.com.