According to Minnesota authorities, the truck driver responsible for the tragic interstate accident in August 2023 was reportedly watching Netflix on his phone at the moment of impact.
Billie Joe Grimes, a 55-year-old resident of Lansing, Tennessee, is facing charges of two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with a tragic accident that resulted in the loss of Matthew Henry Hansen, a 57-year-old man, and Cimberly Ellen Hansen, a 56-year-old woman, both from Urbandale, Iowa.
Grimes faces an additional charge of criminal vehicular operation in connection with the tragic accident.
Rice County prosecutors claim that Grimes, a seasoned commercial driver with five years of experience, was heading north on Interstate 35 on the afternoon of August 25. He encountered a construction zone where traffic had come to a halt. Unfortunately, Grimes failed to stop in time and collided with two vehicles: a Toyota Camry and a Chevrolet pickup truck that was towing a flatbed trailer.
According to a news release, the accident caused the Toyota to be thrown into the ditch. The semi-truck and pickup truck also veered off the road, crashing through a barbed wire fence and ending up near the railroad tracks east of the interstate.
According to a report by KSTP in Minneapolis, the pickup and its trailer were overturned on the train tracks.
The pickup driver sustained only minor injuries, but the Hansens, who were traveling in the Camry, were not as fortunate.
They were both pronounced dead at the scene.
According to witnesses and investigating troopers, Grimes explained that he briefly looked away while driving and, upon looking back up, found the Camry directly in front of him. He attributed his inability to stop to the weight of the load he was carrying.
According to a report by KCWI in Des Moines, the cargo in Grimes’ trailer had a weight of approximately 44,000 pounds.
According to court documents obtained by KSTP, it was revealed that Grimes informed troopers that he observed two lanes of traffic merging to the right and suspected that a driver had made a sudden change, causing the traffic in front of him to come to a halt.
Grimes explained to troopers that he was unable to stop in time and react to the situation. He expressed, “I just didn’t have time to stop. I couldn’t stop the truck.” Grimes shared his regret, stating, “I hit him… but it was too late by that time.”
The truck driver claimed that he couldn’t remember if he had applied the brakes before the collision. When questioned, Grimes denied using his phone but mentioned that his phone was in the process of downloading an episode of “Rust Valley Restorers” from Netflix, which he intended to watch at a later time.
Roadside cameras and Grimes’ own dashboard cameras contradicted the narrative, as per the prosecutors.
According to a crash reconstructionist, Grimes disregarded five signs, two of which had flashing lights, within a 5-mile stretch south of the crash location. These signs specifically cautioned drivers to reduce speed and be prepared for merging traffic.
According to the news release, the video footage revealed that traffic in both travel lanes had slowed or come to a stop approximately 10 seconds before the crash. The dash cameras also showed that there were no vehicles ahead of the truck that made sudden lane changes.
The dashcam audio also revealed that Grimes was streaming his Netflix program at the time of the fatal collision, rather than downloading it.
Grimes failed to observe the slowed traffic and neglected to stop his truck in time, resulting in a high-speed collision with the Camry and the pickup.
According to the news release, the reconstructionist discovered that Grimes continued driving towards the construction zone despite warnings of slow or stopped traffic. It was found that his semi’s cruise control was set between 66-67 mph, and there was no evidence of Grimes using his brakes before colliding with the victims’ vehicles.
