Truck-Tractor Semitrailer Median Crossover Collision With 15-Passenger Van, Munfordville, Kentucky, March 26, 2010

by National Transportation Safety Board

On March 26, 2010, near Munfordville, Kentucky, a truck-tractor semitrailer was traveling south on Interstate 65 (I-65) when it departed the left lane and entered the 60-foot-wide depressed earthen median between the southbound and northbound roadways. The truck traveled across the median and struck and overrode the high-tension median cable barrier adjacent to the left shoulder of northbound I-65. It then crossed the shoulder and entered the lanes of northbound I-65. A 15-passenger van, containing 12 occupants, was traveling northbound in the left lane. As the truck crossed in front of the van, its tractor was struck by the van. Among the safety issues addressed in the report are the need to prohibit the use of cellular telephones by drivers of commercial motor vehicles; the need to provide objective warrants, rather than general guidelines, for the application of median barriers; the need to revise state seat belt laws to include occupants of 15-passenger vans; the need to detect unsafe motor carriers attempting to obtain operating authority by submitting inaccurate or deceptive information to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA); and the need to evaluate the performance of the FMCSA new entrant program. The National Transportation Safety Board is issuing 15 safety recommendations as a result of the investigation.