By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla. — It will be at least a few weeks before the Ottawa County district attorney’s office decides whether criminal charges will be filed against the driver of a tractor-trailer that reportedly plowed into multiple vehicles Friday afternoon on Interstate 44, resulting in the deaths of 10 people.
“(The Oklahoma Highway Patrol) told me this morning it would be at least three weeks before they had the reports to me,” District Attorney Eddie Wyant said Monday.
Wyant will use the reports to decide whether charges will be filed against the truck driver, Donald Creed, 76, of Willard, Mo.
The Highway Patrol has said Creed was traveling at an “unsafe speed” at the time of the accident, which happened on the Will Rogers Turnpike near the Oklahoma-Missouri border.
Creed’s trucking company, Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., on Monday released a statement: “We are working with the appropriate authorities while this accident investigation continues. Our hearts and prayers pour out to the families and loved ones of those who died in the accident, to all those who were injured, their families and loved ones, as well as our driver and his family.”
Steve Dillard, vice president of corporate sales development for Associated Wholesale Grocers, said the company would not be commenting beyond the statement Monday. He said the company might comment in the future as the investigation progresses.
Associated Wholesale Grocers, according to the company Web site, is a retailer-owned grocery wholesaler serving stores in two dozens states. The company is based in Kansas City, Kan., and has a distribution center in Springfield, Mo.
Online records of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show that Associated Wholesale Grocers vehicles had been involved in 20 accidents within the past two years as of late last week. Only six of the 20 resulted in injuries. None of the accidents involved a fatality. The company, with a fleet of 219 vehicles and 316 drivers, posted mileage in excess of 19.8 million last year, according to the federal agency.
The company has a “satisfactory” safety rating from the agency, the best of the three ratings the agency provides.
Efforts to obtain further information from the agency, specifically industrywide averages of accident rates, were unsuccessful Monday.
Several phone messages left with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol on Monday were not returned.
The patrol has said the accident took place at 1:16 p.m. Friday near mile marker 321 in the eastbound lanes of the Will Rogers Turnpike.
A traffic jam had developed because of an earlier minor accident on the turnpike. Traffic was at a standstill when Creed approached and failed to slow down, slamming into a vehicle and knocking it into a ditch before crashing into two more vehicles, according to the patrol report. Those initial collisions triggered a “chain-reaction” of accidents that involved seven vehicles and claimed the 10 lives, the patrol said.
Those killed ranged in age from 7 to 69. They were from Oklahoma City, Texas and Arizona.
Creed was admitted Friday to Freeman Hospital West in Joplin, Mo. He was released on Saturday.
Condition improved
The condition of 12-year-old Andrea Reyes, of Phoenix, Ariz., was upgraded to fair on Monday at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. The girl was among those injured in Friday’s crash. She initially was listed as being in critical condition. Her parents, Ricardo Reyes and Ernestina Reyes, died in the accident.
Source: The Associated Press
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