About 2:15 a.m. MDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2016, a 2004 Toyota Sequoia 7-passenger SUV, occupied by a 22-year-old male driver and 10 passengers, was traveling eastbound in the right lane of US Interstate 70 (I-70) approaching milepost 30.1. The SUV was taking the passengers from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles, California (one passenger was to be dropped off in Denver, Colorado).
During postcrash interviews, SUV passengers stated that, shortly before the crash, the SUV had experienced a mechanical problem that kept it from traveling at highway speeds. None of the passengers recalled looking at the SUV’s speedometer, but they speculated that the SUV may have been traveling 35–45 mph immediately before the crash. Some passengers said that the mechanical problem began after the most recent fuel stop, and they speculated that the driver might have purchased the wrong type of fuel or that the fuel had been contaminated.
About the same time that the SUV reached milepost 30, a 2016 Volvo truck-tractor in combination with a 2007 Great Dane semitrailer, operated by Precision Truck Lines Inc. and occupied by a 27-year-old male driver, was traveling eastbound on 1-70 behind the SUV; it was also in the right lane. The truck was transporting a load from Sacramento, California, to Afton, Missouri, and it had departed Sacramento on June 27.
The SUV was traveling at a slower speed than the truck, which overtook the SUV and rear-ended it. The truck driver told investigators that, to avoid an imminent collision with the SUV, he took evasive action by applying the brakes and steering to the left. Roadway mark evidence supports that he did take such action when he was about 100 feet away from the SUV. According to data from the truck’s engine control module (ECM), the truck was traveling about 75 mph when it struck and overrode the rear of the SUV. (See figures 1 and 2 for location and crash site information.)
The posted maximum and minimum speed limits for this section of I-70 are 75 mph and 40 mph, respectively.
We determined that the probable cause of the Goodland, Kansas, crash was the truck driver’s failure to perceive and take effective action to avoid rear-ending the sport utility vehicle (SUV), due to his fatigue and lack of expectancy to encounter the slow-moving SUV on the highway ahead of him. Contributing to the crash was the SUV driver’s decision to continue traveling on the highway at a reduced speed without using his vehicle’s flashing hazard lights to make the slow-traveling SUV more conspicuous to other drivers. Contributing to the severity of the SUV passengers’ injuries were the SUV’s overloaded condition, which resulted in an insufficient number of rear passenger seat belts, and the lack of a collision avoidance system on the truck.
