'A Hell Of A Lot Faster Than Me': NTSB Finds Speed Was Factor In Fatal Multi-Vehicle Pa. Turnpike Crash
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday released its final, extensive report on a horrific chain-reaction crash that left five people dead and 50 others injured two years ago on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The crash, on a snowy Jan. 5, 2020, happened in the westbound lanes in Mount Pleasant, and involved numerous vehicles, including a motorcoach, a FedEx tractor trailer, two UPS tractor trailers and a car.
Video recorders on the FedEx trucks helped immensely in the investigation, the NTSB said.
The video captured enabled investigators to see the sequence of events leading up to and during the impact. They also determined there was insufficient data as to why the driver of the motorcoach initially lost control and whether being tired played a role.
However, they do say speed was a factor.
"Staff found the motorcoach was traveling too fast on a wet roadway while on a descending curve," Kenny Bragg, the NTSB Human Performance Group Chairman, said. "The driver failed to reduce speed on the wet roadway, which contributed to his loss of control, which initiated the crash sequence."
The NTSB report shows that the driver of the bus had 11 years of experience behind the wheel, and a clear medical record. However, he was issued a ticket in 2019 for speeding on the Turnpike. He also had a violation for running a stop sign. He had one prior on-duty accident.
He began working for the motorcoach company in 2019 and had some familiarity with the route he was on when the crash happened, the NTSB noted in its report.
NTSB investigators found the motorcoach bus was traveling 77 mph when the driver lost control, ran off the right side of the road, hit an embankment and then landed back on the highway overturned on its side. It blocked both the westbound lanes and the shoulders of the Turnpike.
It was traveling around a curve at night in light snow.
Photos in the report show the bus speeding by the FedEx truck that would eventually strike it. The full impact of the crash resulted in the deaths of five people and 50 other people being injured.
The report shows the driver of the FedEx tractor trailer, identified as Brandon Stowers of California, was able to slow down before crashing into the overturned motorcoach bus.
"He leaned forward as he drove to be able to see deer in the roadway more quickly. As he traveled through the curve, he saw a 'black wall' across the roadway, but did not immediately know what it was. He applied the brakes," the report said.
According to the report, the FedEx truck was going 51.5 mph, but Stowers managed to slow down to 22 mph before impacting the bus. The tractor trailer's video system managed to capture the reduction in speed.
In the report, Stowers told investigators he had seen some snowplows out on the roads, which were starting to get wet. He said he had eventually slowed down to 40 or 45 by the time he "noticed this bus coming, flying by me." Stowers recalled seeing "a black wall" about five minutes after the motorcoach had passed him, referring to the crash scene that he ultimately couldn't avoid.
"I noticed he was pulling up behind me, and then as he was getting closer, he turned on his blinker and got over, but after that I just saw him pass by me," Stowers told investigators, before being asked to estimate how fast he thought the motorcoach was driving. "A hell of a lot faster than me," Stowers said.
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Seconds after the FedEx truck hit the bus, the first of two UPS trucks slammed into the wreckage. The first UPS truck was traveling at 71 mph when it smashed into the bus, the NTSB said. Both the driver and co-driver of the first UPS truck died in the crash.
A single passenger car was next in the pileup. Fortunately, both occupants suffered only minor injuries.
Finally, the second UPS truck was going 69 mph when it arrived at the crash site. The NTSB investigation showed that driver did slow down and steered to the right to try to avoid hitting the other vehicles.
Peter Carle, a longtime trucker who was driving the second UPS truck, said he had seen the motorcoach about 10 or 15 minutes prior to the crash before it passed him one final time.
"It was going a pretty good speed," he said, adding that the he saw the other UPS truck crash into the pileup. "I saw him hit something, you know, and you could just tell that he hit it, and parts of the truck went flying. And then the trailer started jackknifing, started sliding around. And then it went dark, because they pulled the cord out. So all his back lights went out. So now it's totally dark. Just what I got on my headlights."
The bus driver and two of his passengers were killed in the accident. NTSB investigators included their interview with one surviving passenger from that bus. He was accompanied by his aunt for that interview, and KDKA has chosen not to identify him.
"I see the bus drifting over to the yellow line ... and the passengers started to scream," he recalled.
The approximately 3,000-page report also provided some background on the tractor-trailer drivers.
The FedEx driver had no prior traffic citations and one prior crash that was "non-preventable" in California.
The driver of the first UPS truck had two prior crashes on his record -- one in 1988 and the other in 2012. The second UPS driver had no previous crashes, but did have a license suspension in 2004 for a failure to appear in court and a conviction on a charge of obstruction of passage of another vehicle. Neither was in Pennsylvania.
As for weather conditions that might have played a role in the crash, investigators said while the road was wet, they did not find any evidence of icy conditions.
