The truckdriver ran off the left side of U.S. Highway 65, struck a ditch embankment, vaulted, and came down on top of a stopped pickup truck in a private driveway. The pickup truck occupants were ejected and fatally injured. The driver of the Mack tractor-semitrailer was also fatally injured. His blood sample revealed a therapeutic dose of tramadol, a toothache pain medication, which can cause sleepiness, dizziness, and seizures.
We determines that the probable cause of the accident was the truckdriver’s use of a prescription drug that may have caused him to become sleepy or incapacitated.
