Federal report into a tanker truck crash a year ago in central Illinois that released a toxic chemical and killed five people includes an interview with a 17-year-old Ohio girl who admits that the the truck was forced off the road when she passed him in the minivan she was driving.
The tanker truck slowed and pulled to the right to allow the minivan to move back into the right lane and avoid a head-on collision with oncoming traffic on two-lane US 40 in Teutopolis on September 29, 2023, according to the dashboard. -camera video of the truck was also released Wednesday evening by the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Oh, (expletive). Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, totally my bad. Wow. Holy (expletive),” the girl said while watching video of the ill-fated truck on October 4, 2023, in Illinois. State Police Interview.
The tanker truck was carrying caustic anhydrous ammonia when it jackknifed and struck a utility trailer parked just off the highway. The trailer hitch punctured the tank, spilling about half of the 7,500-gallon load around 8:40 p.m. local time, just west of Teutopolis, a community about 110 miles northeast of St. Louis.
Five people died, including three family members who were near the road at the time of the incident. About 500 people were evacuated hours after the accident to prevent them from being exposed to the dangerous plume of the chemical used by farmers to add nitrogen fertilizer to the soil and in large buildings as a refrigerant.
CBS Chicago reported The Effingham County Coroner identified the victims as: Danny Smith, 67, of New Haven, Missouri; Vasile Cricovan, 31, of Twinsburg, Ohio; Kenneth Bryan, 34, of Teutopolis, Illinois; Rosie Bryan, 7, of Beecher City, Ill.; and Walker Bryan, 10, of Beecher City, Illinois.
NewsNation-WTWO via AP
The transportation committee said its latest findings are simply a factual account and do not include analysis or conclusions, which are expected later.
Illinois State Police conducted their own investigation, and spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the department turned over its findings last month to Effingham County State’s Attorney Aaron Jones. A message seeking comment from Jones was left at his office Thursday.
The girl, whose name is redacted in the state police interview transcript because she was a minor at the time, said she was traveling with her mother and brother to visit the boy. friend of his mother in the suburbs of St. Louis, Illinois. A crash on Interstate 70 earlier in the night diverted much traffic onto U.S. 40, and she said she passed three trucks on the road heading west toward Teutopolis.
The girl said her passage of the tanker truck began in a passing zone, although a no-passing sign appeared in the video. She said that once she started overtaking, she realized she had to accelerate to clear oncoming traffic and estimated she was going 90 mph when she backed to the right, narrowly slipping in front of an oncoming vehicle. She told investigators her mother was upset about the close call, but she thought she had enough clearance.
However, she declined police investigators’ offer to show the dash cam video again.
“No, you don’t have to. It was all my fault,” the girl said. “Honestly, in the past, I’ve had times where I just didn’t use my best judgment in judging distances and if I had enough time for something.”
While attempting to give the minivan space to pass, the truck moved onto the shoulder, lost traction on gravel, then struck a drainage culvert, according to the truck driver, who survived. Continuing west, the girl said she quickly saw emergency vehicles arriving to the east, but did not connect them to the passing truck.
She said that before the family’s trip back to Ohio, when her mother read news reports about the accident aloud, she had no idea what had happened.
“Of course not,” she told investigators. “I told you three times.”
When one of the investigators expressed disbelief that no one in the car noticed a truck flipping behind them, she doubled down.
“No one said, ‘Oh, the guy behind you drove off the road,'” the girl said. “It would have been a big deal for everyone. We would have been like, ‘Oh, (expletive), I just caused something really bad,’ and then our whole night would have been figuring out ‘what to do.’
CBS Chicago reported that in addition to the NTSB and the Illinois State Police, the Illinois EPA, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation Illinois, local police and firefighters, as well as the U.S. EPA, all responded to the scene.
