A Louisiana truck driver has been arrested on several charges, including negligent homicide, in connection with the state’s 168-car “super fog” pileup in October. The pileup killed eight individuals, including one guy who authorities said died as a direct result of the truck driver’s “negligent speed.”
Ronald Britt was arrested last week and charged with negligent homicide, negligent injury, reckless operation, and other traffic offenses stemming from the incident on I-55. In Louisiana, negligent homicide carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail and/or $5,000.
The Missouri man killed in the incident, 60-year-old James Fleming, “managed to stop his vehicle safely with the other crashed vehicles ahead of him” during a pileup that occurred during “poor weather conditions and limited visibility” that day, police said. However, he was unable to move his car to a safer area due to previous incidents.
Britt, who was driving a truck weighing around 80,000 pounds, arrived on the scene at a speed of approximately 60 mph, authorities said.
“It was determined that Britt was operating at a negligent speed, given the driving conditions at the time, directly leading to the death of Mr. Fleming and the injuries sustained by his wife, Barbara Fleming,” according to the police. “Louisiana State Law requires that drivers maintain a safe speed appropriate for the prevailing driving conditions.”
According to CBS affiliate WWL-TV, the incident happened during a “super fog” occurrence, in which a combination of smoke and fog decreased visibility to less than 10 feet. The phenomenon “can be very dangerous when present over highways,” writes the National Weather Service, “and has been the cause of several large, multi-vehicle pileups.”
Britt surrendered to the police on Monday.
Louisiana State Police said in October that eight people were killed and 63 were injured in the pileup, which involved at least 168 vehicles, including a tanker truck carrying “hazardous liquid.”
