NTSB: Fatigued driver caused fatal June truck crash

Driver fatigue was the cause of a fatal June 2009 crash that resulted in the deaths of 10 people near Miami, OK, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary investigation report.

On June 26, 2009, 10 people died and five were injured when a truck driver failed to react to a crash that had occurred minutes earlier, an NTSB press release said. The truck crashed into a sport utility vehicle, which resulted in a five-vehicle accident. The driver of the truck received serious injuries.

NTSB issued nine new safety recommendations and reiterated six recommendations. The board urged the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require all heavy commercial motor vehicles to be equipped with video event recorders, improve its fatigue educational materials and require all motor carriers to adopt a fatigue management program. NTSB also urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to set performance standards for event data recorders and require the recorders in all trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or more.