Last modified: Thursday, January 12, 2006 1:18 PM CST

Kozlowski faces 25 criminal charges from the October 16 Chi-Hi band bus crash.

BY CHIPPEWA HERALD STAFFEDITOR@CHIPPEWA.COM

EAU CLAIRE - A 23-year-old Highland, Ind., man has been charged in Eau Claire County Court with five counts of homicide by negligent operation of a motor vehicle. The charges come from the Oct. 16 collision involving the Chi-Hi band bus, which killed five people and injured dozens of others.

Michael Kozlowski, 23, also faces 11 felony counts of reckless driving, causing great bodily harm and nine misdemeanor counts of reckless driving causing injury. He is to appear in court on Jan. 31.

Eau Claire County District Attorney Rich White announced the filing of charges at a press conference this morning. He indicated he has arranged through Kozlowski's attorney for Kozlowski to appear in court.

The criminal complaint depicts Kozlowski as a truck driver who was driving erratically, and likely over-tired from having been up all night the night before. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation indicated that Kozlowski likely fell asleep, according to the criminal complaint.

“There are facts that tell us that his driving was erratic, that he weaved, that his speed was erratic,” White said.

Horrible scene

The accident occurred about 2 a.m. in the westbound lane of Interstate 94, about five miles west of Osseo, when the Chippewa Trails motor coach slammed into the semi which had turned on its side, blocking both lanes of traffic.

The charter bus carrying about 55 members of the Chippewa Falls High School band collided with the under side of the semi, killing band director Doug Greenhalgh, his wife Therese, their 11-year-old granddaughter Morgan Greenhalgh, bus driver Paul Rasmus and student teacher Branden Atherton.

Thirty others were injured, with 30 people being transported to hospitals by ambulances.

Following the accident, Kozlowski was released from an Eau Claire hospital after being treated for minor injuries and returned to Indiana. He was not arrested or issued a citation for any violation related to the accident.

However, further investigation revealed a detailed story about Kozlowski's activities and behavior leading up to the accident.

Up all night

According to the criminal complaint: The night before the accident, on Friday, Oct. 14, Kozlowski was drinking in a bar in Indiana at a going away party for a co-worker. A witness identified as Melissa Boersma stated that Kozlowski was drinking there until bar closing time. Then he went out to the parking lot with her, where they “made out” and he was drinking “the hard stuff.”

Boersma said Kozlowski went to her residence with her until about 4 a.m. that Saturday, at which time she took him back to the bar, dropping him off at 4:30 a.m.

GPS records indicate Kozlowski left in the Whole Foods truck for a run to Minnesota at 8 p.m. He was on the road for six hours before the accident occurred.

Kozlowski apparently got little sleep during the day either. Cell phone records indicate calls on his phone around 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., some around noon, more around 3:30 p.m. and another at 5:04 p.m.

At 5:27 p.m. he stopped at a store and bought a can of Red Bull, a highly caffeinated energy drink.

Erratic driving

Two witnesses told investigators that they observed the Whole Foods truck as it made its way through Wisconsin, westbound on I-90/94.

Lawrence Quarles stated that he was driving in the vicinity of the truck for about 1 1/2 hours that Saturday. At one point, with his cruise control set at 73 mph, he was gaining on the truck.

At another point, the truck came up from behind him rapidly, coming close behind him. Quarles said it crowded him in passing and checking his speedometer, he estimated the truck was going about 85 mph. Quarles pulled off at Osseo.

Pamela Ballard said she saw the truck entering the highway from an on-ramp at about 2 a.m. and pulled over to the left lane to let it in. She moved back to the right lane and the truck passed. When it got in front of her she saw it straddling the center line then weaving on the road.

“The driver of the semi was not driving as straight as she was comfortable with, so she lowered her cruise speed down to 60 mph. . . Her intent was to get away from him,” the complaint states.

When Ballard came upon the accident scene, “She was horrified that it was the Whole Foods semi that had made her nervous earlier,” the complaint states.

Inconsistent statements

Kozlowski told investigators that he started to pull off the road, intending to stop and urinate in the ditch. He said he had been driving 66 mph.

He said that he felt the steer tire go off onto the gravel, then tried to get control. He “felt something” and realized that the semi was skidding down the road on its side.

Kozlowski told officers at the scene that he did not fall asleep.

Two facts made investigators doubt Kozlowski's story.

First, he had just passed the Osseo exit three miles back. The exit has all-night truck stops where he could have comfortably used the bathroom.

Second, the truck was found still in 10th gear, inconsistent with a driver intending to pull over and stop. When asked why he was in 10th gear, Kozlowski did not answer, but said he had just taken the truck out of cruise control.

Alcohol not a factor

Although the complaint describes drinking that took place hours before the crash, it was not used as a factor in the criminal complaint, White said.

“There is no information in the complaint that asserts alcohol was a factor in this accident,” White said.

Neither does the complaint rely on the facts from the last few seconds before the crash.

“This is a cumulative view of what took place,” White said. “The issue is, is what took place that night as case of criminal negligence.”

He said the criminal complaint suggests there are a “ream of facts” to justify that conclusion.

“The investigation here I think was exhaustive,” White said, complimenting the Wisconsin State Patrol and the National Transportation Safety Board.

But he said only a small part of the crash investigation is in the criminal complaint, and the rest of the investigation may or may not come out during the trial.

Questions had been raised in the past about the brakes on the motor coach.

Asked if the investigation found that problems with the school bus was a factor in the crash, White said, “I can't get into discussing those things.”

Many of the items found in the investigation may be relevant in a civil, and not a criminal, action, he said.

In October NTSB officials said they didn't have a good feel for why Kozlowski went off the road, eventually causing the traumatic accident involving dozens from the Chippewa Falls community.

However, investigators had not ruled out at the time that Kozlowski had fallen asleep before the crash - something Kozlowski had repeatedly denied.

In the days following the accident Kozlowski made headlines because he was driving illegally when he rolled his semi.

Kozlowski had his license suspended on Sept. 21, less than a month before the fatal accident, according to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Kozlowski's license was suspended when the accident occurred, department records state.

Kozlowski's license was suspended for failing to pay a speeding ticket issued in Indiana on April 27, according to the BMV. He was issued a $150 ticket issued for driving 76 mph in a 55-mph zone and was convicted in Marion Municipal Court on July 3.

Kozlowski sent a check to pay the $150 fine, but the check bounced and his license remained suspended, according to records in the Marion County Clerk's Office in Indianapolis.

The ticket wasn't Kozlowski's first in Indiana, BMV records show, In August 2001 he was convicted of driving 70 mph in a 55 mph zone in Lake County and on April 26 he was convicted of driving 55 in a 40 mph in the Indians city of Frankfurt.

Administrators of the Chippewa Falls School District did not attend today's press conference.

Mike Schoch, district superintendent, said he would not comment on White's decision.

“As for our district, moving forward from the October 16 tragedy has been a priority. We believe we have made significant progress in dealing with a very difficult physical and emotional trauma,” Schoch said.

The school district's focus regarding the tragedy has changed, Schoch said.

“For obvious reasons more attention is being paid to the legal issues surrounding the bus accident. Those issues, as well as comments about them, are better directed toward the litigants and their representatives,” Schoch said.

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