Truck driver pleads guilty nearly five years after NC crash killed 4 on Interstate 40

Nearly five years after a fiery crash on Interstate 40 that killed four people and injured several others, the truck driver charged with causing the collision has pleaded guilty to several charges.

As his trial was set to begin Monday, William O’Neal of Garner pleaded guilty to six felonies, according to Paul Jackson, a senior district attorney in Johnston County who was handling the case.

O’Neal had been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon causing serious injuries. After hearing from survivors and families of the victims, Superior Court Judge Dawn Layton sentenced O’Neal to six consecutive suspended sentences ranging from 15 to 33 months and placed him on probation for 36 months, according to Jackson.

O’Neal is barred from operating a motor vehicle of any kind during his probation. He changed his plea to guilty without making a deal with prosecutors, Jackson said in a written statement.

The crash took place around noon on Aug. 29, 2018. O’Neal was driving a flatbed utility truck eastbound on I-40 near Benson when traffic in front of him slowed to a stop because of a previous accident.

State Highway Patrol investigators said at the time that O’Neal failed to slow down, slamming into the stopped cars, causing two of them to catch fire. Troopers determined O’Neal was neither impaired nor speeding at the time, but they also found nothing mechanically wrong with his truck to explain why he did not brake.

Altogether, 10 cars and two trucks were involved in the crash.

Three people — Michael Anthony Peters of Youngsville and McRoy and Josephine Skipper of Georgetown, South Carolina — died the day of the crash. A fourth person, Sherry Allen of Four Oaks, died later. Several others were injured, two of them seriously.