NTSB’s initial report sheds little light on exact cause of controversial I-35 crash that killed five last year

An initial report from the National Transportation Safety Board has offered some details on the days before last year’s fatal semi truck crash on Interstate 35, but officials are still working to determine an exact cause of the accident. 

The March 2025 accident involving a semi truck driven by Solomun Weldekeal Araya and 16 other vehicles on Interstate 35 left five people dead and 17 injured. Araya was initially thought to have been intoxicated at the time of the crash according to police assessments, but further toxicology testing revealed no substances in his system. He has since been indicted in Travis County on 22 charges that include five counts of Manslaughter, two counts of Aggravated Assault Causing Serious Bodily Injury and 15 counts of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. The Aggravated Assault charges involve “17 different victims who were injured,” reported the DA’s office. 

Now, an NTSB initial report shows that Araya had between four and seven hours of “sleep opportunities” in each of the three days before the crash, including the day of the crash. The report also shows he was not actively using his phone at the time of the crash. 

“The NTSB report reinforces that this was a tragic accident, not a crime,” said Bristol Myers, Araya’s attorney, reported News4SanAntonio.

“He was not drunk. He was not high. They tested his blood for everything they could. It was clean,” Myers said. “They examined his cell phone. At the time of the accident, he was not on a call, not texting, and not using social media. Nothing in the NTSB report suggests the kind of ‘conscious risk creation’ required under the law to prove recklessness,” Myers said.

Araya had a valid CDL at the time of the crash, and his truck was properly maintained. 

A full NTSB report has yet to be released. That report is expected to include a “probable cause” for the crash. The NTSB has released the following statement:

“The investigation is ongoing and we have not released the final report yet. We did open the public docket for the investigation. The docket contains factual information gathered in the process of this investigation—it has reports from the various specialty teams that summarizes information they were able to confirm. None of those reports will contain analysis, probable cause or our recommendations on how to prevent similar crashes from occurring. That will come later in the final report.“