Bus and Truck Crash on Interstate 70 in Ohio

[The Ghostbuster]

Has anyone seen the Associated Press story? 3 dead, 15 hospitalized when bus carrying students and truck crash on Ohio highway, officials say: https://apnews.com/article/ohio-commercial-bus-crash-truck-f86fb65b75731e6cffb436eccc32db16.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

It was 6 dead and 18 injured.
https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/licking-county/large-crash-fire-closes-i-70-west-in-licking-county/
16 hours after this happened, no one quite sure what happened. Conflicting stories from witnesses as to the state of traffic on I-70 at that time.
This did occur on the WB lanes just before the ramp to OH 310.
This is also the section of I-70 that is still 4 lanes (2 in each direction) between Pickerington & Buckeye Lake.

[Black-Man]

I commuted from Pittsburgh to Columbus for quite a while and I always took 37 to pick up 161 to avoid this segment of I-70. It's congested and seems to attract the road rage crowd. Ohio State Patrol would patrol the area (parking in the median) but that just triggered more brake checking and backups. ODOT seemed to think the Columbus-Dayton segment of I-70 had priority on adding another lane. I would think traffic counts between 256 and Buckeye Lake would justify this being a higher priority.

[StogieGuy7]

As the semi plowed into the rear of the bus, the number of scenarios involved here are somewhat limited. Obviously, this is conjecture but wouldn't it seem most likely that the driver of the semi was inattentive and didn't slow up when he should have? I smell a big lawsuit coming. As well as criminal charges.

[carbaugh2]

As some of you may be aware, this section of I-70 is part of my morning commute. While I don't know traffic counts, I do know that traffic is heavy on this section of roadway even when I am driving it between 6:00-6:30 am. Traffic often comes to a slowdown or stop in the mile before and the mile or two after the 310 exit. There are rear end collisions in this area on a regular (biweekly or so) basis. Traffic counts have increased even more since the Etna area has become a logistics center hub for companies sucj as Amazon, FedEx, and Kohls.

This Columbus Dispatch article (https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2023/11/15/ntsb-investigating-fiery-crash-on-i-70-public-briefing-set-for-4-p-m/71592621007/) describes a similar situation to what I encounter daily. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room for the semi to react and stop in time, and it will change the driver's life forever.

Licking County Area Transportation Study (LCATS) submitted a TRAC application for a project to expand 70 to 6 lanes; however, it didn't make the cut. My hope is that ODOT finds safety money to get this project started.

[JREwing78]

AADTs on that stretch of I-70 are at about 51,500 vpd (vehicles per day) east of Etna, and approaching 60,000 vpd west of it. That's certainly busy enough to warrant 6-laning, and it's unsurprising that traffic backups happen at the Etna exit. 6-laning would certainly help with that issue.

Of course, no amount of widening is going to do much if the human behind the wheel is too focused on their mobile device to pay attention to the road.

[Papa Emeritus]

As the semi plowed into the rear of the bus, the number of scenarios involved here are somewhat limited. Obviously, this is conjecture but wouldn't it seem most likely that the driver of the semi was inattentive and didn't slow up when he should have? I smell a big lawsuit coming. As well as criminal charges.

Thankfully, it's pretty easy for law enforcement to determine what, if anything, was happening on someone's cellphone when an accident took place.

If the fatal accident was caused by the truck driver watching porn on his cellphone instead of watching the road (which has been the cause of several fatal truck related accidents here in Minnesota), then the truck driver should be given a LONG jail sentence.