In the case that follows, a woman was distracted by her cell phone where as a result she ended up rear ending a car; the the female driver of the car rear ended was killed and the passenger (her fiance) was left with a traumatic brain Injury.
When you drive, what do you do with your phone?
Do you text and drive? Do you make calls and/or retrieve calls and if you do, do you do it through the phone or hands free?
I try to stay off my phone completely.
Check out this article; its a reminder what can happen when distracted while driving.
As you will see, many lives are forever changed. One person is dead; one will have to recover from a brain injury; the driver who caused the accident is on trial.
Right before the crash the distracted driver had looked at a text message that simply said “Okay.”
Gross negligence, or just a horrible mistake, in deadly I-35W crash?
By SARAH HORNER | shorner@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: February 9, 2018 at 12:48 pm | UPDATED: February 9, 2018 at 11:27 pm
It was a partly sunny spring day, and Brea Amanda Miller and her fiance were on their way to pick up their 2-year-old daughter from the toddler’s grandmother’s house when they got caught in traffic.
Bridge work lay ahead on Interstate 35W and a long line of cars were backed up along the freeway in New Brighton.
The couple waited at the back of the line when Destiny Xiong, on her way to pick up her own three children in Brooklyn Center, smashed into the rear of their car.
The impact crushed the couple’s Honda Fit, forcing the vehicle into the car in front of it, which in turn hit another car. Miller died three days later from her injuries. Her fiance, Michael Bain, survived but suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken ribs.
The defense and prosecuting attorneys now trying Xiong’s criminal vehicular homicide case don’t dispute that Xiong had just looked at a short text message — it said “Okay” — before the crash and was trying to place her phone on the dashboard when she accidentally dropped it.
It was just after she leaned over to retrieve it and looked up that the collision occurred, according to opening statements by defense attorney Earl Gray and Assistant Ramsey County attorney Margaret Gustafson Samec.
But they differ on how fast Xiong, 36, a human resources generalist for the Minneapolis police department, was driving at the time and whether her actions were merely careless, as her defense team suggests, or grossly negligent, as the state asserts.
The state needs to prove to the jury that Xiong was grossly negligent to win its case.
“This isn’t a speeding case; it’s a case about gross negligence … She chose to look down and dig around for that phone,” Samec said during her opening statement Wednesday, adding that Xiong drove past five signs related to the bridge work before the crash. “(Xiong) didn’t care about her own safety or the safety of the other drivers that day.”
Gray told the jurors that such a contention is off the mark.
He said the state’s crash reconstructionist made critical errors in estimating how fast Xiong was going that day, and said none of the signs Xiong drove past urged drivers to slow down. Most were detour signs, Gray said.
He added that the defense will show that Xiong was driving about 55 mph at the time, slightly less than the posted 60-mph speed limit.
Samec said the state trooper who reconstructed the crash scene estimates her speed was between 62 and 72 mph. That was revised down from initial estimates, which put her speed anywhere from 68 to 80 mph.
“We contend that Mrs. Xiong was negligent. … She (made) a mistake. She looked down to get (her phone) and when she looked up, there was a line of cars stopped in front of her. It was dead stopped,” Gray said Thursday. “She was careless, but she wasn’t grossly negligent.”
Testimony in Xiong’s case resumed Friday and likely will continue into next week.
The victim’s family and friends filled three rows in the Ramsey County District courtroom for the trial’s start. Xiong’s family also attended, including her husband, who sat in the front row.
Miller, of St. Paul, was remembered in her obituary as a “loving and devoted mother” who was quick to help anyone who needed it. She was 31 when she died. Her fiance, Bain, was 37 at the time.
In addition to criminal vehicular homicide, Xiong faces one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm for Bain’s injuries.
The crash took place in the late afternoon of May 1, 2016, on 35W just north of County Road D.
An off-duty Minneapolis firefighter witnessed the collision and rushed to help. He was able to extricate Miller from the Honda Fit by cutting off her seat belt. A nurse also stopped and performed CPR on Miller while the firefighter tended to Bain, court records say.
Both were taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Xiong, who lives in Hudson with her family, later told police she could not recall if she braked before smashing into their vehicle. Drivers of both the other vehicles involved said they had been at a complete stop when the collision occurred.
Distracted driving was deemed a factor in more than 86,000 crashes across Minnesota between 2011 and 2015, contributing to more than one in four crashes in that time, according to the State Patrol.
In 2015, distracted driving contributed to 7,666 injuries and 74 deaths.
Destiny Xiong
Brea Miller, right (killed in crash), and her daughter, Izzy.
LINK: https://www.twincities.com/2018/02/...ust-a-horrible-mistake-in-deadly-i-35w-crash/
When you drive, what do you do with your phone?
Do you text and drive? Do you make calls and/or retrieve calls and if you do, do you do it through the phone or hands free?
I try to stay off my phone completely.
Check out this article; its a reminder what can happen when distracted while driving.
As you will see, many lives are forever changed. One person is dead; one will have to recover from a brain injury; the driver who caused the accident is on trial.
Right before the crash the distracted driver had looked at a text message that simply said “Okay.”
Gross negligence, or just a horrible mistake, in deadly I-35W crash?
By SARAH HORNER | shorner@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: February 9, 2018 at 12:48 pm | UPDATED: February 9, 2018 at 11:27 pm
It was a partly sunny spring day, and Brea Amanda Miller and her fiance were on their way to pick up their 2-year-old daughter from the toddler’s grandmother’s house when they got caught in traffic.
Bridge work lay ahead on Interstate 35W and a long line of cars were backed up along the freeway in New Brighton.
The couple waited at the back of the line when Destiny Xiong, on her way to pick up her own three children in Brooklyn Center, smashed into the rear of their car.
The impact crushed the couple’s Honda Fit, forcing the vehicle into the car in front of it, which in turn hit another car. Miller died three days later from her injuries. Her fiance, Michael Bain, survived but suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken ribs.
The defense and prosecuting attorneys now trying Xiong’s criminal vehicular homicide case don’t dispute that Xiong had just looked at a short text message — it said “Okay” — before the crash and was trying to place her phone on the dashboard when she accidentally dropped it.
It was just after she leaned over to retrieve it and looked up that the collision occurred, according to opening statements by defense attorney Earl Gray and Assistant Ramsey County attorney Margaret Gustafson Samec.
But they differ on how fast Xiong, 36, a human resources generalist for the Minneapolis police department, was driving at the time and whether her actions were merely careless, as her defense team suggests, or grossly negligent, as the state asserts.
The state needs to prove to the jury that Xiong was grossly negligent to win its case.
“This isn’t a speeding case; it’s a case about gross negligence … She chose to look down and dig around for that phone,” Samec said during her opening statement Wednesday, adding that Xiong drove past five signs related to the bridge work before the crash. “(Xiong) didn’t care about her own safety or the safety of the other drivers that day.”
Gray told the jurors that such a contention is off the mark.
He said the state’s crash reconstructionist made critical errors in estimating how fast Xiong was going that day, and said none of the signs Xiong drove past urged drivers to slow down. Most were detour signs, Gray said.
He added that the defense will show that Xiong was driving about 55 mph at the time, slightly less than the posted 60-mph speed limit.
Samec said the state trooper who reconstructed the crash scene estimates her speed was between 62 and 72 mph. That was revised down from initial estimates, which put her speed anywhere from 68 to 80 mph.
“We contend that Mrs. Xiong was negligent. … She (made) a mistake. She looked down to get (her phone) and when she looked up, there was a line of cars stopped in front of her. It was dead stopped,” Gray said Thursday. “She was careless, but she wasn’t grossly negligent.”
Testimony in Xiong’s case resumed Friday and likely will continue into next week.
The victim’s family and friends filled three rows in the Ramsey County District courtroom for the trial’s start. Xiong’s family also attended, including her husband, who sat in the front row.
Miller, of St. Paul, was remembered in her obituary as a “loving and devoted mother” who was quick to help anyone who needed it. She was 31 when she died. Her fiance, Bain, was 37 at the time.
In addition to criminal vehicular homicide, Xiong faces one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm for Bain’s injuries.
The crash took place in the late afternoon of May 1, 2016, on 35W just north of County Road D.
An off-duty Minneapolis firefighter witnessed the collision and rushed to help. He was able to extricate Miller from the Honda Fit by cutting off her seat belt. A nurse also stopped and performed CPR on Miller while the firefighter tended to Bain, court records say.
Both were taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Xiong, who lives in Hudson with her family, later told police she could not recall if she braked before smashing into their vehicle. Drivers of both the other vehicles involved said they had been at a complete stop when the collision occurred.
Distracted driving was deemed a factor in more than 86,000 crashes across Minnesota between 2011 and 2015, contributing to more than one in four crashes in that time, according to the State Patrol.
In 2015, distracted driving contributed to 7,666 injuries and 74 deaths.
Destiny Xiong
Brea Miller, right (killed in crash), and her daughter, Izzy.
LINK: https://www.twincities.com/2018/02/...ust-a-horrible-mistake-in-deadly-i-35w-crash/
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