A driver was killed early Thursday morning when their white sedan collided with a semi-truck and became wedged beneath the truck's back wheels near 75th Avenue and Van Buren Street in west Phoenix, according to Phoenix police. The crash happened shortly before 3 a.m. and forced the closure of the intersection as investigators worked the scene.
The sedan had just one person inside at the time of the collision, and that driver did not survive, Arizona's Family reports, citing Phoenix police. The truck driver was not hurt but was given a field sobriety test at the scene, per the same account. Detectives were en route to gather more information about how the crash unfolded, and police asked drivers to avoid the area and use alternate routes while the intersection remained shut down.
Crushed Sedan Underscores Underride Danger
On-scene reporters described a chaotic scene, with a passenger sedan completely crushed and wedged underneath the semi-truck near the intersection shortly after the collision, as reported by 12News. That kind of damage is consistent with what safety researchers call underride — when a passenger vehicle slides beneath a truck trailer instead of crumpling against it. Federal safety research cited by NHTSA shows rear underride occurs in roughly 75% of rear-end collisions between a light passenger car and a heavy truck trailer, with severe occupant compartment intrusion in more than a third of those crashes, according to Arnold & Itkin LLP.
Federal regulators have moved to address the danger. Standards known as FMVSS No. 223 and 224, upgraded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in July 2022 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, require rear impact guards on semi-trailers strong enough to withstand impacts from compact cars at 35 mph.
A Corridor With a Troubled History
Thursday's crash is not an isolated event at this stretch of west Phoenix. Ten months earlier, on November 17, 2025, the same intersection of 75th Avenue and Van Buren Street was shut down after a fiery crash involving an SUV and two semi-trucks left the SUV driver critically injured, according to FOX 10 Phoenix.
Just blocks south, near 75th Avenue and Madison Street, a 31-year-old woman was killed in a pre-dawn collision in March when her vehicle struck a semi-truck, Hoodline previously reported near 75th Avenue. West Van Buren Street itself is officially included on the City of Phoenix High Injury Network under its Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan, a designation that marks it as a multi-lane arterial corridor with high design speeds and frequent severe angle and turning collisions, per the plan cited by Impact Legal.
Statewide Data Shows Trucks Are Disproportionately Deadly
The risks extend well beyond this one intersection. According to the Arizona Department of Transportation's 2024 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts report, 14,069 large commercial trucks and buses were involved in crashes statewide, representing nearly 6% of all traffic collisions that year, as detailed by AZ Law Now. That same data shows 153 people died in commercial truck crashes across Arizona in 2024, with passenger car occupants accounting for roughly 97% of fatalities in collisions between large trucks and light vehicles.
Even so, overall traffic deaths have been trending downward. Total traffic fatalities across Maricopa County dropped 12.8% in 2024 to 594, down from 681 the year before, reflecting a broader multi-year statewide decrease reported by ADOT. That countywide progress hasn't erased the risk on specific freight-heavy corridors like this one, where heavy trucks and passenger vehicles continue to mix at high speeds.
Phoenix's Response to a Deadly Pattern
City officials have pointed to Vision Zero as the answer. As part of its $10 million annual Vision Zero program aimed at eliminating traffic deaths by 2050, Phoenix has expanded automated traffic camera enforcement across 17 High Injury Network locations, targeting speed and signal violations near major west side freight routes, according to Ramos Law.
Whether the semi-truck was turning, stopping, or moving through the intersection around 3 a.m. Thursday remains unclear, and it is not yet known whether the field sobriety test given to the uninjured truck driver will lead to formal charges. Detectives were still gathering information at the scene as the investigation continued.
