Feds: Fatigue, meth were likely cause of fatal truck wreck

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) – Federal investigators say that a wreck that killed six people in Chattanooga last year was likely caused by fatigue and methamphetamine use by a London, Kentucky truck driver who failed to respond to slow-moving traffic in a construction zone.

The National Transportation Safety Board approved the probable cause findings on Tuesday.

The panel cited a failure in the employee screening process to determine that driver Benjamin Brewer of London, Kentucky, had been fired from a previous trucking job two years earlier because of illegal drug use. A hair test administered under an unrelated court order less than three months before the wreck had also turned out positive for meth.

Brewer is being held on $500,000 bond while awaiting trial in Chattanooga. Brewer’s attorneys did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.