Sept. 17, 2008: NTSB report counters what jury ruled

Putting the blame for a fatal 2005 bus-semitrailer truck crash in Wisconsin on a truck driver who fell asleep, the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday urged those who regulate commercial vehicles to find ways to combat driver fatigue with new technology.

The NTSB concluded that Michael J. Kozlowski caused the crash when he fell asleep at the wheel before a bus carrying members of the Chippewa Falls, Wis., high school band crashed into his overturned semitrailer truck on Interstate 94. The finding is contrary to a criminal trial in Hudson, Wis., last year, in which Kozlowski was acquitted of 12 felony and 21 misdemeanor charges.

The report said that bus driver Paul Rasmus, who died in the 2005 crash, was "fit and qualified" to drive and couldn't have avoided colliding with Kozlowski's overturned semitrailer.

The NTSB findings include recommendations to the industry to improve recordkeeping, develop technologies capable of detecting driver fatigue and develop fatigue management programs.

The NTSB also asks that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study whether equipping commercial vehicles with collision warning systems would reduce accidents. And Whole Foods Market Group Inc., the company that employed Kozlowski, was told to start a comprehensive fatigue education program.

Fatigue was cited in felony charges filed against a bus driver in a fatal April crash on I-94 near Albertville involving the Pelican Rapids High School band. The charter bus company owner has said rest wasn't an issue.

'The precipitating event'

The report also found that Kozlowski, who had driven 323 miles hauling groceries from Munster, Ind., when the crash occurred, was tired because of lack of sleep during his off-duty hours and from drinking alcohol the previous night.

Along with the 78-year-old Rasmus, the crash killed the marching band's popular director, 48-year-old Douglas Greenhalgh, known to students as "G"; his wife, Therese, 51; their 11-year-old granddaughter Morgan Greenhalgh, and Branden Atherton, a 24-year-old student-teacher.

Victims and their families have filed lawsuits against Kozlowski and Whole Foods.

Early Oct. 16, 2005, the buses were rolling home to Chippewa Falls from the state band finals at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Just before 2 a.m., several hours after the band had taken third place in the competition, the bus driven by Rasmus slammed into the dark undercarriage of Kozlowski's overturned semitrailer in the westbound lanes of I-94 near Osseo, Wis.

Defense saw two accidents

But the NTSB report said that "even a driver with ideal vision most likely would not have been able to react to the unanticipated road hazard in time to slow the motorcoach sufficiently to alter the severity of the accident." Even though Rasmus wasn't wearing required corrective lenses he was "otherwise fit and qualified" to drive the motorcoach, the report concluded.

Kozlowski, of Schererville, Ind., told investigators that he was driving a load of produce to the Twin Cities for Whole Foods Market. The complaint said that he left Munster, Ind., at 7:56 p.m. on Oct. 15, and drove until the crash happened in Eau Claire County. Gray argued in the trial that Kozlowski lost control when he pulled over to urinate.

The absence of lighting on the semitrailer truck and Rasmus' use of low-beam headlights made it difficult for him to see the overturned truck, the NTSB said. But his early problems with cataracts -- a key defense argument at the criminal trial -- most likely didn't affect the outcome of the crash, the NTSB said.

The NTSB also said that the bus, owned by Chippewa Trails, had out-of-adjustment brakes, but that probably didn't contribute to the accident.

The district attorney who prosecuted the criminal case, Richard White of Eau Claire County, couldn't be reached Tuesday to comment.