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The Deadly Toll of Amazon’s Trucking Boom


Amazon’s explosive growth is flooding highways with semitrucks carrying cargo for the internet retailer. But a five-month investigation by The Information reveals that those trucks were involved in more than 50 serious crashes over the last three years. And Amazon says it bears no responsibility.

A still image from WPTV news footage of a truck crash last November in Palm Beach County, Fla. Image courtesy of WPTV
A still image from WPTV news footage of a truck crash last November in Palm Beach County, Fla. Image courtesy of WPTV
May 14, 2021 6:00 AM PDT

Abdullah Baidas had just pulled over to help the victims of a minor traffic accident on a freeway north of Houston when the truck with the blue smiley-face logo on its side shattered his body.

The 23-year-old mechanic was standing on the shoulder of the freeway reporting the original fender bender to a 911 operator by phone. The call provides a grim audio record of the moment in April 2020 when the 30,000-pound tractor-trailer—which was hauling freight for Amazon—barreled into him. In a recording of the call obtained by The Information, Baidas’ conversation with the emergency dispatcher is interrupted at 1:33 a.m. by a scream and the sound of crunching metal.

“Hello? Hello?” asks the dispatcher, her voice shaking. “Oh, my goodness.”