Truck driver accused of watching Netflix pleaded not guilty to all charges for fatal crash

A truck driver accused of watching Netflix while driving pleaded not guilty to all charges on Tuesday. 

On Tuesday, November 4th, 56-year-old truck driver Billie Joe Grimes pleaded not guilty to two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and one count of criminal vehicular operation for a deadly crash on Aug. 25, 2023.

According to KARE 11, Grimes was on Interstate 35, just south of Faribault, Minnesota when he drove past DOT signs warning of slow traffic ahead and crashed into two vehicles. 57-year-old Henry Hansen and 56-year-old Cimberly Ellen Hansen were both killed in the crash. 

During the investigation, Grimes told police that his phone was actively downloading the show “Rust Valley Restorers” as he was driving, but denied using the phone while driving. He says he was downloading the show to watch later. The criminal complaint states that police used the driver-facing dash cam to determine that Grimes was “watching a Netflix show as he approached stopped or slow-moving traffic as he approached a construction zone.” Police did discover two shows downloaded on Grimes’ phone, but neither was “Rust Valley Restorers.”

Grimes told officers that he had “just a split second, a couple seconds” to react. “I just didn’t have time to stop, I didn’t have time to react and I couldn’t stop the truck.”

He also told investigators that he “could not remember if he applied the brakes prior to impact.” Grimes was traveling at 68 mph at the time of the accident and is accused of watching Netflix. Prosecutors allege that Grimes “was distracted to the extent that he failed to apply the brakes before he crashed into the Toyota and killed” the two victims. Grimes has requested a jury trial.