National Transportation Safety Board report reveals details on January I-75 crash

A new report published Wednesday shows that three passengers involved in the Interstate-75 crash that killed seven in January were ejected even when they wore seatbelts.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on the crash. It didn’t include a probable cause for the crash or safety recommendations, but it did show five of the 12 passengers in a passenger van were wearing seatbelts when the crash happened.

On Jan. 3, five children and two adults were killed and eight were injured in the crash on I-75 near Gainesville.

Steve Holland was driving a semi-truck north on I-75 in Gainesville when he hit Robyn Rattray in a pick-up truck. Both vehicles went through the guardrail into the southbound lane and hit the passenger van the children were in and Douglas Bolkema’s semi-truck. Five people were ejected from the van.

The semi-trucks caught on fire after 50 gallons of diesel fuel spilled onto the highway. The passengers in the van were on their way to Walt Disney World in Orlando from Louisiana.

The safety board report said that Holland held a commercial driver’s license with an expiration date of February 2022. Investigators believe he operated within the regulated hours of service.

He had received eight traffic citations in Palm Beach County since 2003, according to court records. One of the citations was for careless driving.

The board won’t release personal information on the passengers until a final report of the investigation is released.

The board, a federal agency, couldn’t send investigators to gather evidence because the crash happened during the government shutdown which was from Dec 22 to Jan. 25, said board spokesperson Keith Holloway.

The board sent investigators to Gainesville on Jan. 31 to look at the vehicles, photographs and documentation taken when they weren’t on the scene.

During the shutdown, 21 crashes were not investigated and 367 employees were furloughed. Only 26 employees were deemed essential personnel.

The investigation is still its early stages, so the information in the preliminary report can change, Holloway said. The investigation can take 12 to 18 months.