Patrol: Big rig breaks in 10-fatality accident OK

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has found no problems with the brakes on a tractor-trailer that plowed into stalled cars in a turnpike accident that killed 10 people.

Patrol Capt. Craig Medcalf said Tuesday that the assessment was based on an examination of the big rig’s brake pads. Medcalf said the damage to the undercarriage of the tractor was so extensive that troopers could not test the brakes’ performance.

Authorities have said it appears the truck driven by 76-year-old Donald Creed of Ash Grove, Mo., did not slow on Friday afternoon before it ran into traffic that had stopped for an earlier accident on the Will Rogers Turnpike near Miami, in far northeastern Oklahoma.

Prosecutors have said Creed could face misdemeanor negligent homicide charges.