4 killed, 7 injured on I-70

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

SPRINGFIELD — Four people were killed and seven more injured after a tractor-trailer lost control on Interstate 70, swerved into oncoming traffic and collided with a small bus transporting disabled passengers Thursday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

The tractor-trailer was heading west on the highway when it crossed the median and struck the bus and another vehicle heading the opposite way, Sgt. Raymond Durant said.

The roads were snow-covered when the crash occurred, and it had been snowing steadily throughout the region all day.

Traci Williams, 42, who was driving the 17-passenger bus; Kenny Fry, 61; Lonnie Acton, 28; and Alonso Ruffin, 37, all of Springfield; were killed in the accident, according to an OSHP news release.

The truck driver Zygmunt Wieckowski, 59, of Chicago, and six others, all of whom were riding in the bus, suffered injuries and were transported to hospitals, Durant said.

Robin McCann, 45, of Cuyahoga Falls, was driving the second vehicle the truck clipped in the accident. She was not injured.

The bus was from the Creative Learning Workshop, a center based in Warren that provides vocational services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Phone calls to the center’s director were not immediately returned.