Ohio truck driver pleads guilty in fatal crash

Associated Press

CAMP CREEK, W.Va.

An Ohio truck driver has pleaded guilty to reckless driving in a crash that killed two West Virginia Parkways Authority employees.

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph cited court records in reporting that the agreement reached last week dismisses two charges of negligent homicide against 53-year-old James Richard Crandall of Reedsville, Ohio, in the crash last year.

Prosecutor George Sitler said the evidence didn’t support willful indifference to the safety of others, a necessary element of negligent homicide. No jail time was recommended.

Police said Crandall was driving a semi-tractor double trailer on a hazardous stretch of highway when he hit two Parkways Authority vehicles on the side of the road and the three employees standing next to them.