When two vehicles collide, the weight difference between the vehicles plays a large role in which one sustains the most damage – and whose occupants suffer the most severe injuries. For example, if a sport utility vehicle collides with a small compact car, chances are high that the driver and passengers in the car will be hurt more seriously than the occupants of the SUV. The same axiom goes for a crash between an SUV and a motorcycle.

But when an SUV collides with a tractor-trailer, the outcome is probably going to be much different.

This point was illustrated last week in North Las Vegas when a sport utility vehicle and an 18-wheeler crashed. On Thursday afternoon around 3:30pm, an SUV was involved in a collision with a semi at the intersection of North Fifth Street and Cheyenne Avenue, which is less than a mile west of I-15. Authorities said that one of the vehicles ran a red light, but it isn’t clear which one did so. The female driver of the SUV had to be rushed to University Medical Center with serious injuries.

A police investigation will have to determine which driver actually ran the red light. If the SUV driver did, she will be held responsible for the accident. But if the truck did, then its driver and the owner of the truck company would both be held liable for the woman’s injuries. In the latter case, both the company and the semi driver could be named as defendants in a personal injury lawsuit filed by the victim.