By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Managing Editor
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) met this week to determine the probable cause of the June 7, 2014 multi-vehicle crash that killed one man and sent, among others, former Saturday Night Live star and comedian Tracy Morgan to the hospital in critical condition.
Truck driver Kevin Roper, 35, of Jonesboro, Georgia, was operating a 2011 Peterbilt truck tractor for Walmart Transportation LLC when it struck a slowly moving 2012 Mercedes-Benz limo-van, causing the first of several collisions ultimately involving 21 people and six vehicles near milepost 71.5 on the New Jersey Turnpike. One of the five passengers in the limo-van’s passenger compartment was killed and four others were seriously injured. The two front seat limo-van occupants and three people in other vehicles sustained minor injuries.
The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the crash was Mr. Roper’s fatigue, due to his failure to obtain sleep before reporting for duty, which resulted in his delayed reaction to slowing and stopped traffic ahead in an active work zone and his operation of the truck at a speed in excess of the posted limit. Contributing to the severity of the injuries was the fact that the passengers seated in the passenger compartment of the limo-van were not using available seat belts and properly adjusted head restraints.
“This investigation ranged across a variety of road safety issues, and resulted in many new or reiterated recommendations,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said. “Some recommendations addressed crash survivability issues. We urged safety briefings and better emergency egress in commercial passenger vehicles so that passengers use restraint systems and have access to and knowledge about emergency exits. We asked for better assurance of the safety of vehicles that have been modified after their manufacture.”
Other recommendations touched on emergency response issues.
“Whether professional or volunteer, emergency responders deserve our respect and our gratitude,” Chairman Hart said. “They also deserve training and standards to do their lifesaving work as effectively as possible.”
The NTSB “aspired to the best safety outcome of all,” Chairman Hart said, “preventing the crash altogether.”
“For crashes like the one in Cranbury that we have discussed today, that means preventing driver fatigue,” he said. “Fatigue cannot be addressed solely by regulations. Strong hours-of-service rules are important. But they cannot govern what employees do on their own time. That’s where fatigue management programs can help, by educating drivers, dispatchers, managers, and their families that fitness for duty must be an unwavering commitment.”
Walmart has taken steps to bolster its driver fatigue education and policies since this crash and has stated its intention to develop a fatigue management program, according to Chairman Hart.
“Today we urged Walmart to complete the implementation of this program, and we reiterated our recommendation that the FMSCA require such programs nationwide.”
Other recommendations, if acted on, will continue to bring technology to bear on preventing such crashes.
“Speed limiting and collision avoidance technologies can act as backstops to drivers, who are vulnerable to human error. On-board monitoring systems can detect driver behaviors that might lead to a crash. But if there is a crash, there is one simple, relatively low-tech measure that we can all take to improve our own chances of surviving it: We can buckle up and use out adjustable headrests, not just in our own cars, but in commercial passenger vehicles as well.“
He added, “Seat belts save lives — no matter what type of vehicle we are in, and no matter who is driving.”
The accident began when the semi-trailer, traveling at 65 miles per hour in a 45 miles-per-hour work zone on the Turnpike, encountered traffic that was moving less than 10 miles per hour due to road construction ahead. The driver, already going too fast, was slow to react. The truck struck the rear of the limo-van at between 47 and 53 miles per hour, starting the chain reaction crash.
During the course of the hearing on the accident, the NTSB heard about the lack of a pre-trip safety briefing for passengers in the limo-van, none of the occupants in the rear compartment of the limo-van wore their seat belts and the limo-van passengers had poor emergency egress opportunities.
“In fact, because the limo-van interior had been customized, the passengers in Cranbury had no available exits until emergency responders removed parts of a plywood panel that had been installed between the passenger compartment and the cab as part of the customization,” Chairman Hart said.
In addition to these survivability issues, the NTSB discussed ways to strengthen commercial trucking safety.
“Heavy trucks are involved in nearly one in eight fatal crashes,” Chairman Hart said. “This alone demands our attention. In work zones, such as the one in which this crash occurred, one of four fatal crashes involves a heavy truck. And we know that a major contributor to truck-involved crashes is driver fatigue.”
The driver in this crash had been on duty for 13.5 hours of a 14-hour duty day, with more driving planned, according to the NTSB. He had been awake more than 28 hours when his truck struck the limo-van, including an overnight drive from his residence in Georgia to the distribution center at which he was based, according to the NTSB.
