What part of trucker Benjamin Brewer's history did local authorities not appreciate when they let him go without charges following a colossal and fiery Interstate 75 accident that involved nine vehicles, killed six people and injured four others?
Witnesses said Brewer, 39, barrelled his truck into a line of cars stopped in construction near Ooltewah on the evening of June 25. The day before, the trucker had been in another accident in Florida and cited with careless driving.
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* I-75 truck driver Ben Brewer now considered a fugitive from justice * Truck driver wanted in fatal I-75 crash eludes authorities * Trucker charged with six counts of vehicular homicide in deadly I-75 crash
The case to indict truck driver Benjamin Brewer, who caused a wreck that killed six people on I-75 in June, was put together more quickly than it might have otherwise and not later.In the days after the accident, it became clear that Brewer and the trucking company he worked for had spotty histories. To top it off, Brewer, of Kentucky, turned out to be a fugitive from justice on a Wisconsin drug charge.
None of those encounters with America's public safety systems had been enough to prevent the horrific crash here. But by the weekend after the Thursday accident, Brewer had returned to Kentucky where he said he lived. Officials said he had been ordered not to drive anymore pending the outcome of investigations by authorities, including the National Transportation Safety Board.
Investigators eventually found that he had tested positive for methamphetamine six weeks before the crash, lied on his application for employment and crashed his truck five times in the four years leading up to the fatal wreck here, according to an order issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. In that order issued July 16, three weeks after the accident here, the agency declared Brewer an imminent hazard to public safety.
On Monday, a Hamilton County grand jury indicted Brewer on six counts of vehicular homicide, four counts of reckless aggravated assault, driving under the influence of narcotics, speeding and making false reports about his duty status.
But Tuesday brought another insult: Brewer had vanished. The address in London, Ky., that he gave crash investigators was that of relatives. He didn't live there. Authorities said they have no leads on his whereabouts.
How many more times in this case can our safety systems fail us?