On the afternoon of March 22, 2022, at 12:19 p.m., a 2015 Chevrolet Spark four-passenger car, occupied by a 16-year-old driver and five teen passengers, was traveling east on Oklahoma State Highway 22 (SH-22) approaching US Highway 377 (US-377) in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.
The car’s two front-seat occupants were wearing seat belts, but the seat belt status of the four back-seat occupants is unknown. The flow of traffic on SH-22 was controlled by a stop sign, and vehicles on US-377 had no traffic controls. At the same time, a 1994 Peterbilt truck-tractor in combination with a 2017 Travis semitrailer (combination vehicle) was traveling south on US-377 at a calculated speed of 51–53 mph and approaching the intersection with SH-22. Both US-377 and SH-22 had posted speed limits of 50 mph. The car driver slowed her vehicle in advance of the intersection to about 1 mph (behind another vehicle) but did not come to a complete stop at the stop sign or yield to the oncoming combination vehicle. Instead, the car driver sped up to make a left turn in front of the combination vehicle. The combination vehicle driver applied braking and steered to try to avoid the collision, but the combination vehicle struck the driver’s side of the car; all six occupants in the car were fatally injured. The combination vehicle driver was not injured in the crash.
We determined that the probable cause of the Tishomingo, Oklahoma, collision was the teen driver’s acceleration through the intersection after briefly slowing without stopping, due to distraction from having five teen passengers in the car, limited driving experience, and likely impairment from cannabis.
As a result of this investigation, we issued new safety recommendations to:
- The Oklahoma State Department of Education
- Service Oklahoma
- The Governors Highway Safety Association
- The National Conference of State Legislatures
- The National Association of State Boards of Education
- The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
We also reiterated two previously issued recommendations, one to Oklahoma and another to 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
