Truck Driver Was Going 72 MPH Before Crash That Killed 6: NTSB

A truck driver’s “inattention” resulted in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 70 in Ohio that left six people dead nearly two years ago, authorities have found.  

On Wednesday, Sept. 24, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shared its findings in a 92-page report about the Nov. 14, 2023 collision.

The crash happened near state Route 310 in Etna Township just before 9 a.m. local time, leading at least three of the vehicles to catch fire, according to a news release from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. 

All five vehicles — including a charter bus carrying school children, two commercial vehicles and two passenger vehicles — were traveling westbound on I-70 at the time of the chain-reaction crash.

At a Nov. 15, 2023, press conference, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said the second passenger car was sandwiched between the bus and the commercial vehicle that rear ended it.

The six victims who died were identified as John Mosley, 18, Jeffery Worrell, 18, Katelyn Owens, 15, Dave Kennat, 56, Kristy Gaynor, 39, and Shannon Wigfield, 46, WOSU Public Media reported. 

In their findings, the NTSB said that the probable cause of the crash was “the truck driver’s inattention and failure to respond, for unknown reasons, to the visibly slow-moving vehicles, including a motorcoach, at the end of a traffic queue caused by an earlier minor crash.” 

“Contributing to the crash was the lack of adequate strategies to monitor the development of the traffic queue on I-70,” the agency continued, “after a minor incident and to inform travelers of the traffic conditions ahead.”

According to the report, immediately before the crash, the truck driver was traveling at a speed of about 72 mph, while the other four vehicles were traveling between 3 and 15 mph.

“The Freightliner combination vehicle did not slow and crashed into the rear of the traffic queue, causing a chain-reaction collision that involved five vehicles, including two passenger vehicles, a motorcoach, and another combination vehicle,” the NTSB said.

Officials said that the “speed differential between the combination vehicle and the slow-moving traffic queue and the postcrash fire” led to the severity of the collision and that the “lack of an in-vehicle driver monitoring system to return the truck driver’s attention to the forward roadway” was a contributing factor.

“We’ve seen this crash scenario far too often—and it’s preventable,” Homendy said in a news release about the NTSB findings. “Proven technologies can warn drivers of slowed traffic and prevent collisions before they happen. What’s needed are stronger vehicle safety standards, better traffic incident management and swift action on our recommendations. Lives depend on it.”

In addition to the fatalities, another four were seriously injured and 37 suffered minor injuries. 

In May of this year, the driver of the truck, Jacob McDonald, was found guilty of six counts of misdemeanor vehicular homicide, per WOSU, CBS affiliate WBNS and NBC affiliate WLWT.

McDonald was cleared of other charges, including felony aggravated vehicular homicide, after a judge said the state was unable to establish recklessness. 

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A month later, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and credited for time served. According to Licking County, Ohio, inmate jail information, McDonald’s expected release date is Jan. 17, 2026.

PEOPLE reached out to Mid State Systems, the operator of the tractor trailer cited in the report, for additional comment on Friday, Sept. 26.