A truck driver was found to be using Tik Tok in the moments before a deadly chain reaction crash in Arizona earlier this year.
The crash occurred around 6:15 a.m. on January 12 in the eastbound lanes of I-10 near the Chandler Boulevard off-ramp in Chandler, Arizona. 36-year-old truck driver Danny G. Tiner was arrested on Thursday, June 29th.
According to AZ Family News, Tiner originally said he was ‘acknowledging a work message’ on his work tablet at the time of the crash. He says by the time he looked up he was so close to a line of stopped traffic that he could not slow down in time to avoid a crash. He smashed into two cars, pushing them into another semi truck and two other cars. Two cars crushed between the second semi and other vehicles burst into flames, killing five.
Since then, investigators from the FBI and DPS examined Tiner’s phone usage history and found that he had been scrolling Tik Tok at the time of the wreck.
He has been booked into jail on five counts of manslaughter, four counts of endangerment and one count of tampering with physical evidence – all charges are felonies.