'He wanted to hit him,' witness says
Truck driver tried to avoid wrong-way driver on highway in Dayton.
The truck driver whose DAYTON — gasoline tanker exploded on Interstate 75 on Sunday did everything he possibly could to avoid the fatal collision with a wrong-way driver, according to witness accounts and a Day
ton Police crash report released Wednesday.
The report confirms the tan Honda driven by Andrew Brunsman of Centerville was going the wrong-way on I-75 southbound when it appeared to swerve into the path of the tanker, which then collided with the median wall, caught fire and exploded.
The truck is owned by Lewis Transportation Inc. of Columbia, Ky., and was driven by Richard Miller, 59, of Dayton. Miller suffered a dislocated shoulder as he exited the truck, but he was able to run and warn drivers who had stopped nearby that his rig was going to explode.
David Arnold and his wife were in a third vehicle that was damaged in the crash and explosion.
Arnold confirmed that from his vantage point, the car going the wrong way appeared to purposefully move into the path of the tanker truck, while the truck driver did everything he could to avoid the collision.
“The truck had moved down in front of me... And I couldn’t figure out, ‘Why is he moving in front of me?,’ and then I saw the car coming at him and then I realized what he was doing. He was trying to get away from the car,” Arnold said.
He said the wrong-way car driven by Brunsman appeared to cross two lanes in order to hit the truck head-on.
“The truck driver did everything he could to get away from the car, but he just wanted to hit him,” Arnold said.
He saw the collision in front of him and said the truck ran over Brunsman’s car.
The truck then drifted to the left, hitting the median and eventually coming to a stop. Arnold ran over some debris but was able to move his car to the right shoulder.
Truck driver Miller ran to the Arnolds’ car and others, warning them that the truck was going to explode.
“Police officers came right away too, because they’d already gotten reports that he was going the wrong way,” Arnold said. “And it was shortly after that it blew up. That’s when my car got that extra damage.”
Neither Arnold nor his wife were injured.
“It doesn’t make any sense that he was going the wrong way, and it doesn’t make any sense that he moved down two lanes to hit the truck. The whole thing doesn’t make any sense,” Arnold said.
The crash report indicates that alcohol or drugs are suspected to have played a role in Brunsman’s actions.
Alcohol and drug screenings were ordered on him via blood test, but the results are not yet known, according to the report.
Miller was not suspected of alcohol or drug use and was not tested.
Miller’s wife said he’s not ready to talk about the crash, but his family wants to extend their thoughts and prayers to the Brunsman family.
“We are continuing to pray for the family that lost a loved one on Sunday,” she said.
ODOT Public Information Officer Mandi Dillon said Wednesday that repair work on the interstate is on schedule. All but one lane of I-75 southbound were expected to reopen with normal configuration by this morning, along with the reopening of the ramps from Ohio 4 and Main Street.
One southbound lane will remain closed so crews can work on the damaged median wall, Dillon said.
The carrier’s trucks have been involved in 26 previous serious hazardous materials incidents during transport since 1989, according to records from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration the company has 130 trucks and 122 drivers who logged more than 8.8 million miles in 2016.
Some of the nation’s largest carriers have hundreds of serious hazmat incidents recorded. Serious incidents are those that cause death or major injury, the evacuation of 25 or more people, close a major highway, or release more than 119 gallons of hazardous material, among other criteria.
Less than half of Lewis Transportation’s serious incidents involved crashes. Two crashes resulted in the death of the drivers due to fire. One was in 2006 in Middlebourne, WV. The other in 2012 in Shelbyville, Ind.
Records indicate the trucks hauling gasoline or diesel fuel generally haul 8,500 gallons. Dayton firefighters indicated that’s about the amount they believe burned or spilled on the interstate Sunday.