ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky State Police were investigating
whether distracted driving caused a tractor-trailer to plow into an SUV
carrying eight people on Saturday, killing six and possibly triggering a
serious crash on the opposite side of the highway.
The truck driver is "telling us that he saw the
vehicle that was in front of him and he hit the brakes and he didn't hit
them in time," Master Trooper Norman Chaffins said. " ... There was a
reason for that and we're trying to figure out what the reason was."
The late-morning crash was followed 15 minutes
later by a multi-vehicle crash on the opposite side of Interstate 65
that injured three people. The site was just 15 miles from where 11
people died in 2010 when a tractor-trailer crossed the median and hit a
van carrying a Mennonite family. Ten people in the van were killed along
with the truck driver and the National Transportation Safety Board
determined the truck driver was distracted by his cell phone.
Chaffins said despite snow flurries, weather was
not a factor in Saturday's crashes. He said police were also looking
into the truck driver's logs and had taken blood tests.
The six killed were identified as members of an extended family from Marion, Wis.
They were identified as James Gollnow, 62, and his
wife, Barbara Gollnow, 62; Marion Champnise, 92, a friend; Sarina
Gollnow, 18, relationship unknown; and foster children Gabriel Zumig,
10, and Soledad Smith, 8.
The two survivors were also foster children. Police
identified them as Hope Hoth, 15, who was transported to a hospital in
Lexington with burns and a broken spine; and Aidian Ejnik, 12, who was
taken to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville with cuts to the back
of his head.
Chaffins described both of the children's injuries as non-life-threatening.
The two crashes shut down the busy stretch of
highway for about five hours. The first happened at 11:13 a.m. EST on
northbound I-65 south of Elizabethtown. In the second crash, four
vehicles collided at the same location on the southbound side.
Chaffins said in the first crash, a 1999 Ford
Expedition was hit from behind and then hit the car in front of it, but
the driver of that vehicle had only minor injuries. He did not know
where the Expedition was headed.
The Expedition was "totally engulfed in flames. It
was totally destroyed by the fire," he said, adding, "It's just a
charred mess."
He said one eyewitness told police two people emerged from the blaze and one appeared to be on fire.
The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured
and was cooperating with police, Chaffins said. "He's obviously pretty
torn up about everything."
The southbound crash involved a tractor-trailor and
three other vehicles. Police were investigating whether rubbernecking
was the cause.
"That's what we're suspecting, that people were
looking at the crash that happened on the other side and became
distracted and caused a chain-reaction crash," he said.
Those injured in the second crash were taken to hospitals but were not identified.
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