Horrific footage shows teen cutting off tanker that killed 5 before having shock reaction
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: National Transportation Safety Board/CBS News
Horrifying footage shows the moment that a 17-year-old driver cut off a lorry, causing it to jack knife and spill toxic chemicals.
Five people were killed when the truck leaked out thousands of gallons of ammonia in central Illinois.
The teen driver had not realised that she had done anything wrong until she watched video of the crash.
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Upon watching the dash cam footage of the incident being played back, the teen said: "Oh, (expletive). Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yep, totally my bad. Wow. Holy (expletive)."
In September 2023 the 17-year-old had been driving with her mother and brother to see her mom's boyfriend in the Illinois suburbs of St Louis.
The car cut off the tanker which was carrying caustic anhydrous ammonia, a chemical which is used in farming to add fertiliser and as a refrigerant in large buildings.
After the truck jack knifed it hit a trailer by the roadside, which punched a six inch hole into the tanker.
The spillage also saw a toxic plume escaping from the tanker.
As a result, five people were killed by the plume, including Kenneth Bryan, his children Walker, 10, and Rosie, 7, as well as pastor Rev. Dan J. Smith, and 31-year-old Vasile Cricovan.
The driver claimed that she had begun passing the tanker in a passing zone, despite a no passing sign appearing in the video.
But she said that after she had started to pass she realised that she needed to accelerate and guessed that she had been travelling at around 90mph when she passed and pulled back
She had narrowly missed an ongoing vehicle, and that her mom had been upset by the close call though she had believed she had enough clearance.
The teen further claimed that she had no idea that the crash had happened, saying: "Of course not. I told you that like three times."
When investigators questioned how nobody in the vehicle had been aware of a truck turning over behind her, she doubled down on her claims.
The girl said: "Nobody said, ‘Oh, the guy behind you drove off the road.’ "That would've been a huge deal for everybody. We would've been like, ‘Oh, (expletive), I just caused something really bad to happen,' and then like our whole night would’ve been figuring out."
She went on to admit that the incident had been her fault, saying: "No, you don't have to. It was totally my fault.
"I've honestly in the past had times when I just don't use good judgment in judging like distances and whether I have enough time for something."