A 20-year-old woman was too busy checking Facebook on her cellphone that she drove directly into the back of another vehicle on a North Dakota highway and killed an 89-year-old grandmother, prosecutors say.
Abby Sletten was charged with negligent homicide last Wednesday after Phyllis Gordon, who had 8 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, was killed in the May 27 crash.
It was found that Sletten was viewing pictures over Facebook at the time of the crash. Authorities also said Sletten had sent and received several text messages before the accident as well.
A driver that was heading northbound toward Grand Folks told a Highway Patrol officer that he was driving at 80 mph when Sletten’s SUV passed him on the left.
An SUV in front of Sletten slowed to make a U-turn, but Sletten never slowed down and ran right into the back of the vehicle killing Gordon.
Authorities found no evidence that Sletten hit her brakes before the crash, which “suggested the possibility that Sletten may have not seen the vehicle in front of her or that she was distracted while driving,” read the criminal complaint.
Sletten told authorities that she had could not remember the crash.
Gordon’s granddaughter Jennifer Myers was driving the SUV. Myers and her daughter survived their injuries.
North Dakota passed a law in 2011 prohibiting the use of cellphones while driving.
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