State police arrest a 60-year-old man for negligent homicide because he was distracted by his phone and crashed, claiming one life, and injuring another. Trooper Kate Stegall said it happened February 27th along the Clearview Parkway exit on I-10 in Metairie. She said the victims were outside their cars discussing a crash between their vehicles when Manuel Llorens approached.
“The driver of the vehicle that struck the parked vehicles Mr. Manual Llorens was distracted by his cellphone when the crash occurred,” said Stegall.
Stegall said they are seeing more and more drivers distracted by their cellphones and causing serious crashes. She said it takes an average of four and a half seconds to read and respond to a message on your phone.
“At 55 miles an hour it takes five seconds to drive the length of a football field, so when we’re taking that 4.5 seconds to just look at a simple alert on your phone, you’re basically driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed,” said Stegall.
Stegall implores drivers to place their phone where it’s inaccessible or silence the phone when driving so they aren’t tempted to respond. She said even eating while driving can be distracting.
“All of our concentration has to be on driving so that we can do it safely and make sure that we aren’t putting ourselves at risk or anyone else in the community or any other drivers on the roadway,” said Stegall.
49-year-old Chad James of Thibodaux was killed in the February crash.
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