Ohio teen admits to causing car accident, chemical spill that killed 5: ‘Totally my bad’

The East Palestine train derailment and styrene leak near Cincinnati happened within Ohio.

Now, an Ohio teen has admitted to cutting off a tanker semi-truck in central Illinois that overturned and killed five people from a chemical spill caused by the crash.

Here’s what we know.

Ohio teen admits triggering crash; resulting chemical spill killed five people

A report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows that the 2023 tanker truck collision released hazardous chemicals that prompted evacuations in Teutopolis, Illinois. The truck carried around 7,500 gallons of anhydrous ammonia. More than half of the toxic chemical from inside the tank leaked out. Of the five who died from the exposure, three were members of a family that included an adult and two children under 12-years-old.

The 17-year-old Ohio girl—whose name was concealed since she was a minor—admitted that she passed the truck when driving a minivan. “Oh, (expletive). Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yep, totally my bad. Wow. Holy (expletive),” she said during an Oct. 2023 Illinois State Police interview, the Associated Press reports.

Inside the minivan were the Ohio teen, her mother and her brother headed to St. Louis. She admitted fault for the accident and estimated she was driving about 90 mph to make sure she had enough clearance to pass the truck. The posted speed limit on US-40 was 55 mph, according to the NTSB.

“It was totally my fault,” she said to NTSB investigators. “I’ve honestly in the past had times when I just don’t use good judgment in judging, like, distances and whether I have enough time for something.”

Throughout the interview, the teen maintained that she had no idea the crash happened until they were preparing to return home. “Nobody said, ‘Oh, the guy behind you drove off the road.’ That would’ve been a huge deal for everybody. We would’ve been like, ‘Oh, (expletive), I just caused something really bad to happen.’”

According to the NTSB, the tanker truck driver attempted to avoid a collision but skidded off the road and ultimately struck a utility trailer, where the hitch punctured the tank and released the anhydrous ammonia, a known lung-damaging agent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.