Ohio
Tractor-trailer driver charged in fiery Ohio bus crash that killed 6
olice body camera footage of fatal I-70 bus crash in Licking County
Police body camera video shows scenes of a fatal November 14, 2023, crash that killed three high school students and three adults on Interstate 70 in Licking County.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A truck driver in Ohio has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide after he caused a chain-reaction crash involving a charter bus carrying high school students that left six people dead and 18 others injured last November.
Jacob McDonald, of Zanesville, Ohio, was indicted Thursday on 26 counts, including six counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, nine counts of vehicular assault and 11 counts of assault. The charges McDonald faces include allegations that he was driving “recklessly.”
The chain-reaction crash on Nov. 14, 2023, occurred on the westbound lane of Interstate 70 in Licking County, which is about 40 miles east of Columbus, Ohio’s capital city. Reports from the Ohio Department of Public Safety and National Transportation Safety Board revealed that McDonald, who was driving a tractor-trailer at the time, failed to slow down for a vehicle in front him.
The tractor-trailer then struck the vehicle, which pushed the car into the charter bus carrying 54 students and chaperones. Three students, a teacher and two other chaperones were killed in the incident.
McDonald is in the Licking County Justice Center on a $1 million bond. He is next scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon. McDonald does not currently have an attorney listed as representing him.
The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to investigate the crash.
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What happened in the crash?
Authorities said the crash involved five vehicles total, including the charter bus, the tractor-trailer, another commercial vehicle and two passenger vehicles. None of the drivers involved were found to be distracted or under the influence.
The charter bus carrying students and chaperones was headed to the last day of the Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus. It was occupied by a driver and 54 students, teachers and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools in Zoarville, Ohio.
In the NTSB’s report released last December, investigators said traffic had been backed up on the interstate due to a previous crash. McDonald did not slow down and hit the the rear of a 2015 Nissan Murano — occupied by a high school teacher and two chaperones.
The Nissan was traveling west in the right lane as it slowed for the backed-up traffic, the report said. The tractor-trailer then ran over the Nissan and collided into the charter bus, which struck the rear of a 2006 Toyota Highlander that rotated counterclockwise while traveling forward and hit a 2014 Volvo combination vehicle.
Dozens of emergency personnel were dispatched to the crash site and area hospitals had been placed on alert for a “mass casualty incident.”
Documents obtained by The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY Network, showed that the trucking company involved in the crash received previous citations for issues with its trucks, including defective brakes.
Truck driver faces several lawsuits
The estates of at least three of the victims who died in the crash have filed wrongful death lawsuits against a central Ohio trucking company and McDonald.
In the complaints, attorneys argued that Fyda Freightliner sold the semi-truck to Mid-State Systems — another trucking company — without standard safety systems. The attorneys said the semi-truck was not equipped with crash prevention safety systems that could have prevented the crash, and accused McDonald and the two companies of negligence.
The companies have denied responsibility for the crash.
Contributing: Emily DeLetter, USA TODAY; Bailey Gallion and Patrick Flaherty, The Columbus Dispatch
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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