COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- One year ago, tragedy struck in central Ohio when six people, including three high school students, died in a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 70 near Etna.
Students and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School, in Northeast Ohio, were on their way to Columbus for a band event. Jacob McDonald, 61, the driver of the semi-truck that started the crash, faces 26 charges ranging from vehicular homicide to vehicular assault. He is due back in court on Dec. 2.
The death toll that day could have been greater than it was if it wasn't for the quick and brave action of first responders willing to put their lives on the line for others.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has been implementing new technology to prevent similar tragedies as part of an effort to prevent end-of-queue crashes on highways around the state.
A year after the fiery, five-vehicle crash, ODOT's Press Secretary Matt Bruning said it does appear to be making a difference.
"Obviously we still see congestion out there and to my knowledge, we have not seen anything even approaching what we saw a year ago, so certainly that is a measure of success that we haven't had a serious crash out in that location," Bruning said.
He said the department activated the first of 13 warning systems in Licking County on I-70 near the site of the deadly crash. According to Bruning, since February, the system has been triggered dozens of times, alerting motorists of slow or stopped traffic ahead.
"When it detects that there's slow or stopped traffic, it will light up a message on a message board, a digital message board that is upstreamed from where that slow traffic is, to alert drivers you need to be planning to slow down or potentially stop in the next mile or so," Bruning said.
Bruning said all of the sites were selected based on factors such as traffic congestion, and the number and severity of rear-end crashes.
"The bus crash was just another example," Bruning said. "We see these end-of-queue crashes all too often around the state of Ohio unfortunately."
Bruning said the public needs to do its part. He said all of the engineering solutions ODOT can put in place still require drivers to pay attention.
"If you're playing on your phone, you're not looking ahead, you're never going to see even this new information that we put out there," Bruning said. "It's just another layer to reduce risk but this is not going to eliminate end of queue crashes."
Bruning said the goal is always to get those crash numbers down to zero so another family or school district like Tuscarawas Valley doesn't have to deal with the immeasurable loss it's experiencing.
"These aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet," Bruning said. "These are people. These are lives of human beings that were loved by somebody."
The technology is now also up and running in three places on Columbus interstates.
According to the Tuscarawas Local School District's Facebook page, it'll be paying tribute to the six victims through a blood drive and memorial walk this Sunday. Both are set to start at noon. Things will kick off with a moment of silence and community prayer.
"I can't even imagine what those families are going through,” Bruning said. “It doesn't get easier, I'm sure, for them year after year. It's not going to get easier. Their pain is still going to be there."
The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation is ongoing. It has not released its final report yet which can take 12-24 months to be completed.
The NTSB said its public docket for this investigation is likely to open within a week. The docket will contain factual information gathered in the process of the investigation which can sometimes contain police reports, transcripts of interviews, weather reports and other factual reports. The preliminary report can be found here.
