CBS News
Teen admits she cut off tanker that spilled chemical in Illinois, killing 5 people: “Totally my bad”
A federal report on a tanker-truck crash a year ago in central Illinois that spilled a toxic chemical and killed five people includes an interview with a 17-year-old Ohio girl who concedes that the truck was forced off the road when she passed it with the minivan she was driving.
The tanker slowed and pulled to the right to allow the minivan to get back in the right-hand lane and avoid a head-on collision with oncoming traffic on the two-lane U.S. 40 in Teutopolis on Sept. 29, 2023, according to dash-cam video from the truck also released late Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Oh, (expletive). Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yep, totally my bad. Wow. Holy (expletive),” the girl said while watching the video from the ill-fated truck during an Oct. 4, 2023, Illinois State Police interview.
The tanker truck was carrying caustic anhydrous ammonia when it jack-knifed and hit a utility trailer parked just off the highway. The trailer’s hitch punctured the tank, spilling about half of the 7,500-gallon load about 8:40 p.m. local time just west of Teutopolis, a community about 110 miles northeast of St. Louis.
Five people died as a result, including three family members who were near the road when the incident occurred. About 500 people were evacuated for hours after the accident to spare them exposure to the hazardous plume from the chemical used by farmers to add nitrogen fertilizer to the soil and in large buildings as a refrigerant.
CBS Chicago reported the Effingham County Coroner identified the victims as: Danny Smith, 67, of New Haven, Missouri; Vasile Cricovan, 31, of Twinsburg, Ohio; Kenneth Bryan, 34, of Teutopolis, Illinois; Rosie Bryan, 7, of Beecher City, Illinois; and Walker Bryan, 10, of Beecher City, Illinois.
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The transportation board said its latest findings are merely a factual account and do not include analysis or conclusions, which are expected later.
The Illinois State Police conducted its own investigation, and spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the department turned over its findings last month to Effingham County State’s Attorney Aaron Jones. A message seeking comment from Jones was left at his office Thursday.
The girl, whose name is redacted in the transcript of the state police interview because she was a minor at the time, said she was traveling with her mother and brother to visit her mother’s boyfriend in the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis. An accident on Interstate 70 earlier that night diverted loads of traffic onto U.S. 40, and she said she passed three trucks on the road heading west into Teutopolis.
The girl said her pass of the tanker began in a passing zone, although a no-passing sign appears in the video. She said once she began passing, she realized she needed to accelerate to clear oncoming traffic and estimated she was going 90 mph when she pulled back to the right, narrowly slipping by an oncoming vehicle. She told investigators her mother was upset by the close call, but she thought she had plenty of clearance.
However, she declined the police interviewers’ offer to show the dash-cam video again.
“No, you don’t have to. It was totally my fault,” the girl said. “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.”
Attempting to give the minivan space to get over, the truck moved onto the shoulder, lost traction on gravel and then hit a drainage culvert, according to the truck driver, who survived. Continuing west, the girl said she soon saw emergency vehicles coming east but did not connect them with her passing the truck.
She said that before the family’s return trip to Ohio, when her mother was reading aloud news accounts of the crash, she had no idea it had happened.
“Of course not,” she told investigators. “I told you that like three times.”
When one of the investigators expressed disbelief that no one in the car noticed a truck turning over behind them, she doubled down.
“Nobody said, ‘Oh, the guy behind you drove off the road,’ ” the girl said. “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” what to do.
CBS Chicago reported that in addition to the NTSB and Illinois State Police, the Illinois EPA, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security, the Illinois Department of Transportation, local police and fire, and the U.S. EPA all responded to the scene.
CBS News
Surge in Helene relief efforts led to about 30 mid-air close calls over North Carolina in a single day
There were approximately 30 mid-air close calls over North Carolina on Saturday, Sept. 28, as relief efforts ramped up in response to Hurricane Helene, a federal official briefed on the matter confirmed to CBS News Friday.
The close calls resulted from a spike in aircraft that included planes, helicopters and drones arriving in western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The federal official said the close calls did not involve commercial airline traffic.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the North Carolina Department of Transportation, say air traffic over Western North Carolina has increased by 300% due to relief efforts since the storm cleared.
Becca Gallas, director of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Division of Aviation, told CBS News by phone Friday that there has been a steep increase in government, search and rescue flights, as well as National Guard flights.
“When the images of the impact of Helene started to show up on TV screens, there was an outpouring of support and love from communities and people were trying to help get supplies on the ground very quickly, but there were safety issues with the air operations,” Gallas said.
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In addition to the mid-air close calls, there have been two incidents airport involving private aircraft dropping off relief supplies, Gallas disclosed. One had landing gear that did not deploy on landing, and another aircraft caught fire. There were no injuries in either incident, Gallas said.
Two small airports in the area were so overwhelmed by incoming traffic they ran out of fuel for a period, she added, but that has since been resolved.
The spike in air traffic has resulted in additional requirements being put in place for aircraft entering certain areas of North Carolina in order to meter the flow of air traffic. The FAA has instituted a Prior Permission Required designation, which means pilots and drone operators must get permission to use an airport facility or runway. The PPR is currently in effect at the Asheville Regional Airport and Rutherford County Airport, but could be extended to others.
Gallas said in response to the spike, the FAA and NCDOT have co-implemented three mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of an aircraft accident during Helene relief efforts.
The first involves establishing call-in lines at airports for incoming pilots to schedule landing and supply unloading times, as well as scheduling and reserving aircraft parking. The second establishes sky corridors, which are essentially “lanes” for civilian aircraft to use that are separate from the lanes being utilized by military or search and rescue flights. And third is implementing short-term targeted airspace restrictions in areas where multiple search and rescue aircraft are operating.
Gallas explained that with the exception of the Asheville Regional Airport, which does have commercial aircraft, these increase in traffic is at small general aviation airports that may typically have only three employees working, so it’s also an effort to keep ground operations sustainable and not overwhelm limited staff.
“We want every single pilot and aircraft to go home safely at the end of the night when they are doing that critical operation,” Gallas said.
As of Friday, at least 225 deaths across six states have been attributed to Helene, CBS News has confirmed, including 114 in North Carolina.
Western North Carolina specifically has been hard hit by the storm, with significant flooding that has devastated entire communities. Hundreds of roads across Western North Carolina remain closed, requiring state and federal teams to scour the region for survivors by air.
President Biden surveyed Helene’s destruction in the Carolinas by air Wednesday, and announced that the federal government will cover all debris removal and emergency protective measure costs in North Carolina for six months.
CBS News
Stellantis files lawsuit against UAW, claiming union does not have right to authorize mid-contract strike
(CBS DETROIT) — Stellantis has filed a lawsuit against the United Auto Workers union, which is continuing to fight over its 2023 bargaining agreement and the UAW’s threat to strike.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court Central District of California, claims that the UAW “filed sham grievances designed to justify mid-contract strikes against Stellantis that otherwise would violate [the collective bargaining agreement’s] no strike clause.”
Stellantis claims that the union ignored the language in Letter 311, which allows the automaker to make plans for future investments with company approval and are subject to change based on consumer demand, changes in market conditions and plant performance.
The automaker is seeking a court declaration that the union “acted in bad faith” and violated the bargaining agreement.
“Ignoring this negotiated-for and mutually agreed-upon language in Letter 311, the UAW and its agents, including President Shawn Fain, have embarked on a sustained, multi-month campaign against the Company to force the planned investments without Company approval and regardless of business factors,” read the lawsuit.
This comes as the UAW announced that a supermajority of members at Stellantis’ Los Angeles Parts Distribution Center voted to request strike authorization from the International Executive Board if they cannot settle grievances.
This is the first time Stellantis union members have held such a strike vote since multiple locals began filing grievances against the automaker, according to a news release.
“Stellantis made a contractual promise to invest in America and we are not going to let them weasel out of it,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. “Our members won those investments during the Stand Up strike, and we will strike again to make Stellantis keep the promise if we have to.”
According to an internal email obtained by CBS News Detroit, Stellantis informed workers that the company would sue the UAW.
The email also said the lawsuit “would hold both the International and the local union liable for the revenue loss and other damages resulting from lost production due to an unlawful strike.”
However, Fain has repeatedly stated that the union earned the right to strike under the 2023 agreement over alleged broken promises. Fain also said other UAW locals plan to vote on strike authorization in response to claims that the company was attempting to move production of the Dodge Durango out of the country and delaying the reopening of the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois.
Stellantis cited market conditions as contributing to the delay of the Belvidere plant and proposed a consolidated Mopar Mega Hub, stamping operations in 2025 and allocating a new midsize truck in 2027, according to the lawsuit. The company also said Letter 311 included a planned future investment in the next-generation Durango in 2026 at the Detroit Assembly Complex. The plans are subject to committee approval due to “unpredictability” and “highly volatile” vehicle markets.
CBS News
Helene disrupts yellow jacket, bee nests in North Carolina, prompting massive Benadryl, EpiPen requests
Deadly flooding from Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina has disrupted the underground nests of yellow jackets, bees and other insects, causing them to swarm and sting people struggling to recover from the storm.
It has caused such a surge in requests for medication to protect people allergic to stings that the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is buying Benadryl and epinephrine injections to help fill requests through hospitals, emergency medical personnel and doctors.
Pharmacists in the state can also provide emergency refills for people who are already prescribed allergy medications, according to a state health department spokesperson. The state is planning to allow people to buy epinephrine injections such as EpiPens without a prescription, and it is working to collect and distribute donations of medicines.
While most people are not allergic to stings from bees and other insects, irritation and pain can be intense and stings can swell and remain painful for days, according to the Mayo Clinic. And some people can have a severe allergic reaction that can lead to anaphylaxis that can cause difficulty breathing, swelling of the tongue and throat, weak pulse and loss of consciousness. In these situations, it’s critical to administer epinephrine immediately.
Being stung more than a dozen times can also cause a buildup of venom in the body that can cause serious sickness that can include dizziness, fever, convulsions or vomiting.
To reduce the risk of getting stung, experts recommend wearing long and light-colored clothing that has a smooth finish, avoiding perfumes and smelly soaps and deodorants.
If there’s only one stinging insect around, they recommend staying calm and still, and to avoid swatting at it. But if several are stinging, they say it’s better to try to quickly get indoors or into a shaded area. Bees release a chemical when they sting that attracts other bees.
Surge in Helene relief efforts led to about 30 mid-air close calls over North Carolina in a single day
Stillwater high school football player saved after cardiac arrest
Stellantis files lawsuit against UAW, claiming union does not have right to authorize mid-contract strike
Surge in Helene relief efforts led to about 30 mid-air close calls over North Carolina in a single day
Stillwater high school football player saved after cardiac arrest