DA: Will be weeks before decision can be made on charges

It will be at least several weeks before the Ottawa County District Attorney’s office can determine whether criminal charges will be sought against a Willard, Mo., man whose tractor trailer allegedly plowed into multiple vehicles Friday afternoon, killing 10 people.

“(The Oklahoma Highway Patrol) told me this morning it would be at least three weeks before they had the reports to me,” said District Attorney Eddie Wyant.

Wyant will then use the reports to decide whether charges will be filed against the tractor trailer driver, Donald Creed, 76.

The patrol says Creed was traveling at an “unsafe speed” at the time of the accident, which occurred at 1:16 p.m. Friday in the eastbound lane at mile marker 321, near the Oklahoma-Missouri border, on the Will Rogers Turnpike.

The trucking company, Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., today put out a statement saying it was working with the authorities on the accident investigation and that its “hearts and prayers” went out to the families and loved ones of those who died in the wreck, along with the injured and their families, and their driver and his family.

Steve Dillard, vice president of corporate sales development for Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., said the company would not be commenting further today. He did say the retailer-owned cooperative might have future comment as the investigation progresses.

The Associated Press today reported the condition of a 12-year-old girl injured in a highway crash that killed 10 people is improving.

Jessica Salazar, a spokesman for Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., said that Andrea Reyes of Phoenix is now listed in fair condition.

Andrea had initially been listed in critical condition after the crash on Friday afternoon. Her parents, Ricardo Reyes and Ernestina Reyes, died in the accident.