An Ohio teen admitted that she inadvertently caused 5 deaths when she cut off a tanker truck carrying thousands of gallons of caustic anhydrous ammonia, causing the vehicle to jack-knife and spill the chemical.
The accident occurred in Sept. of 2023, when a 17-year-old girl was traveling to the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis with her mother and brother, according to a report released by the National Transportation Safety Board. She tried to pass the truck at a high speed. In order to avoid collision with oncoming traffic, the truck driver allowed the girl to re-enter the right lane.
The truck was forced off the road into a utility trailer parked off the highway, which punctured the tank carrying the ammonia. The subsequent plume of chemicals that was released into the air killed 5, including Kenneth Bryan and his two children, aged 10 and 7.
The Independent reported that Rev. Dan J. Smith, a Missouri pastor, and Vasile Cricovan, a 31-year-old truck driver, also died as a result of the accident.
Following the accident, 500 people were evacuated from the area for hours due to risks of chemical exposure.
During an Illinois State Police interview, dash cam footage from the tanker truck was shown to the 17-year-old girl.
"Oh, (expletive). Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yep, totally my bad. Wow. Holy (expletive)," the girl said as she watched the video.
The girl, who had had no idea the crash happened directly after causing it, declined to watch the video again when officers offered to replay it.
"No, you don't have to. It was totally my fault," the girl said. "I've honestly in the past had times when I just don't use good judgment in judging like distances and whether I have enough time for something."
"Nobody said, 'Oh, the guy behind you drove off the road,' " the girl said in an interview with law enforcement. "That would've been a huge deal for everybody. We would've been like, 'Oh, (expletive), I just caused something really bad to happen,' and then like our whole night would've been figuring out [what to do]."
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