FARIBAULT, Minn. — A semi-truck driver from Tennessee is accused of watching Netflix on his phone when he slammed into traffic last summer in southern Minnesota, killing a couple from Iowa.
Billie Joe Grimes, 55, of Lansing, TN, was charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and one of criminal vehicular operation in connection to the crash last August on Interstate 35 just south of Faribault.
Killed in the Aug. 25 crash were 57-year-old Matthew Henry Hansen and Cimberly Ellen Hansen, 56, from Urbandale, Iowa.
The crash happened in the northbound lanes of I-35 at a point where traffic had slowed down because of an upcoming merger due to road construction.
Prosecutors said Grimes drove by orange Department of Transportation signs warning motorists of slow-moving traffic ahead.
According to the criminal complaint, Grimes' Volvo semi-truck, loaded with more than 44,000 pounds of cargo, slammed into the Hansens' Toyota Camry and a Chevy pickup truck pulling a flatbed trailer. The pickup driver suffered suffered minor injuries.
Grimes told police his phone was downloading an episode of "Rust Valley Restorers" from Netflix that he planned to watch later. He denied using his phone while driving.
The complaint states crash scene investigators used dash cam video from inside Grimes' own semi-truck to determine that he was "watching a Netflix show as he approached stopped or slow-moving traffic as he approached a construction zone," according to the criminal complaint.
State patrol troopers also found two shows downloaded on Grimes' phone, but neither show was from Rust Valley Restorers.
According to the complaint, Grimes told troopers he had "just a split second, a couple seconds" to react. He further added, "I just didn't have time to stop, I didn't have time to react and I couldn't stop the truck." Grimes said he couldn't stop his truck because of the weight of the load. He also told troopers He "could not remember if he applied the brakes prior to impact."
Crash scene investigators determined that Grimes was traveling 68 mph at the time of impact.
Prosecutors said Grimes "was distracted to the extent that he failed to apply the brakes before he crashed into the Toyota and killed" the Hansens.