An Ohio truck driver is facing 26 charges, including aggravated vehicular homicide, after a November crash left six people dead, including three high school students.
Jacob McDonald, 60, of Zanesville, was arrested July 18 after being indicted by a Licking County grand jury for his role in a Nov. 14 crash that killed Dave Kennat, 56; Kristy Gaynor, 39; Shannon Wigfield, 45; John W. Mosley, 18; Jeffery D. Worrell, 18; and Katelyn N. Owens, 15. Mosley, Worrell and Owens were Tuscarawas Valley High School students.
The crash occurred on Interstate 70 in Etna shortly before 9 a.m. when McDonald smashed into a vehicle, causing a deadly chain-reaction crash. Investigators say McDonald did not slow his truck.
A crash earlier that morning had caused a traffic jam. The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report, released in December, says McDonald, driving for Mid-State Systems Inc., did not slow his truck when he encountered the slowed traffic, causing him to crash into a 2015 Nissan Murano occupied by Kennat, Gaynor and Wigfield.
The Nissan collided with a 2009 Van Hool motorcoach occupied by the driver and 54 passengers from the Tuscarawas Valley Local School District. The motorcoach then slammed into a 2006 Toyota Highlander, which hit a 2014 Volvo combination vehicle. Three vehicles, including the motorcoach, caught fire.
McDonald was also injured in the crash, as were more than a dozen others, according to a report from the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The Hebron-based trucking company has 14 drivers and 28 power units, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The company, which has a satisfactory safety rating, hauls general freight. Five crashes involving the company’s trucks were reported to the agency in the past two years.
Wrongful death lawsuits have been filed against the trucking company and McDonald.
The NTSB is still investigating.
McDonald is being held on a $1 million bond. Court records do not list an attorney for him. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
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