Tuscarawas Valley Bus Crash Trial starts on May 5th in Licking County

Jacob D. McDonald will be brought to trial for 26 criminal counts in connection with a bus accident in November 2023, in which six and 18 were injured.
The trial supervised by judge David Branstool will be a banking procedure and is expected to take several days.
Several civil lawsuits were submitted against McDonald and related companies that subsided.

For a man from Zanesville with 26 criminal census in connection with a bus accident in November 2023 with a Charter bus in the municipality of Etna, in which six people were killed and 18 others injured, a legal proceedings begin.

Jacob D. McDonald, 61, did not guilty in July to prove the indictment after a big jury claimed him. It stands before six cases of heavy vehicle murder, nine attacks by vehicles and 11 attacks.

On November 14, 2023, McDonald drove an SUV with the Interstate 70 and a charter bus with 54 students and chaperons from Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools. The crash killed three students: John Mosley, 18, Jeffrey Worrell, 18, and Katelyn Owens, 15. A teacher and two chaperons in the SUV – Dave Kennat, 56, Kristy Gaynor, 39, and Shannon Wigfield, 46 – died too.

McDonald remains in the Licking County prison with a bond of 1 million US dollars.

The process should begin in February after a few earlier shifts, but the Lick County judge David Branstool postponed. McDonald's lawyer tried to postpone the negotiation date and referred to the request to present experts that the defense would not have been able if the process had started in February.

It will be a banking procedure, which means that there will be no jury, and industry will take into account the evidence and statements before the judgment. It is expected that it will take several days, although it can take longer for both sides to provide closing arguments.

According to a crash report of Ohio State Highway, McDonald had no alcohol or drugs in his system at the time of crash.

In a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, McDonald's Trailer had traveled 74.7 miles per hour about a minute before the crash. The speed limit in which the crash took place is 70 miles per hour.

The victim's goods have submitted several civil lawsuits in which McDonald and several companies were accused of not installing safety devices and following security measures that could have prevented the crash.

The Newark Advocate Josué Perez reporter can be reached at jhperez@newearkadvocate.com.

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