Fatal Butler Co. crash tied to semi’s improper parking

The death of a popular restaurant owner in southwestern Ohio this week shows the dangers of over-crowded rest areas, a common occurrence with the increase in registered trucks and growing number of miles traveled, officials said.

Fei Ni, also known as “Peter,” 39, who owns Dragon China in Trenton, was driving his SUV Wednesday morning when he rear-ended a parked tractor-trailer on the left side of the entrance ramp to the rest area, just south of Monroe on I-75.

The driver of the semi, Michael Vosburg, 36, Lawrence, Michigan, was asleep inside the tractortrailer when it was hit, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Ni, alone in his vehicle, was killed.

Vosburg awoke upon the impact but was not injured. He was issued a traffic citation for parking in a posted no-parking zone, according to the highway patrol.

It’s common in Ohio — including on I-75 and I-70 — to see trucks lined up on the berm of state rest area ramps because no spots are available in the parking lot.

“When you see trucks around ramps or you see them alongside the road, that’s just an accident waiting to happen,” said Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express Trucking in Dayton and the former chairman of the American Trucking Associations, told the Dayton Daily News late last year. “Our government should be providing truck parking.”

The practice of parking on the berm is legal in Ohio, but illegal in some states.

Officials have previously recommended that truck drivers plan their driving hours so that they can find an appropriate rest area. If drivers must stop on a ramp, they should be as far away from highway traffic as possible.

On Wednesday night, about 12 hours after the fatal accident, semis were lined up on the entrance and exit ramps of the same rest area. All of the parking spaces were filled.

Ni’s death was the fifth fatal crash in Butler County this year, according to statistics from the state patrol. There were 28 fatal crashes in Butler County in 2018 and 31 fatalities in the county in 2017.

In the state, there have been 191 fatal crashes this year, and during the same time period in 2018, there were 193.