A California driver was texting before slamming into another vehicle, killing a juvenile who was inside, troopers said.
Omer Darz Gorsi, 24, was driving a Ford F-250 in Sutter County on June 30. While texting, he was driving at approximately 55 miles per hour.
Because he was looking at his phone, Gorsi didn’t see an Acura Integra in time and slammed into it. The juvenile was in the passenger seat of the Integra and was thrown from the vehicle. She died from her injuries.
The Acura had been traveling at about 15 miles per hour due to traffic on Highway 99, which runs one lane in each direction.
The California Highway Patrol said in a news release obtained by KCRA that Gorsi’s vehicle then slammed into the car ahead of the Acura, the impact of which led to the F-250 flipping over and ejecting him.
The truck landed upside down.
As the Ford and Acura were blocking traffic, two cars traveling on the highway slammed into them as the drivers weren’t able to avoid hitting them.
The driver of the Acura and another passenger were rushed to hospitals in the region with serious injuries.
Gorsi was not arrested, troopers said. It wasn’t clear whether he would be charged.
The California Highway Patrol said in the release that the crash was due to Gorsi’s “inattention while texting on his cellphone,” reported KXTV.
Neither he or the juvenile were wearing seatbelts, officers said.
The driver of the Acura was later identified as Erica Vargas, 33. The injured passenger was named as Jorge Yanezperez, 31.
The vehicles that were not able to avoid the crashed cars were identified as a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee and a 2010 Acura Integra. The driver of the former did not suffer any injuries while the driver and a passenger in the latter suffered minor injuries.
A picture from the scene showed a heavily damaged vehicle on a tow truck and multiple emergency vehicles blocking traffic.
CHP: Driver texting before fiery Sutter County crash, juvenile killed https://t.co/UuulrDT85p pic.twitter.com/IN6E7khPFr
— kcranews (@kcranews) July 1, 2019
Texting While Driving
Some 3,166 people died because of distracted driving in 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“Distracted driving is any activity that diverts attention from driving, including talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system—anything that takes your attention away from the task of safe driving,” the administration stated.
“Texting is the most alarming distraction. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed. You cannot drive safely unless the task of driving has your full attention. Any non-driving activity you engage in is a potential distraction and increases your risk of crashing.”
Of all the fatal crashes in 2017, 9 percent were reported as crashes affected by distraction, the administration said in April (pdf). There were 34,247 fatal crashes in the country; distraction-affected fatal crashes numbered 2,935.
“Much attention across the country has been focused on the dangers of using cell phones and other electronic devices while driving. In 2017 there were 401 fatal crashes reported to have involved cell phone use as a distraction (14 percent of all fatal distraction-affected crashes). For these distraction-affected crashes, the police crash report stated that the driver was talking on, listening to, or engaged in some other cell phone activity at the time of the crash. A total of 434 people died in fatal crashes that involved cell-phone-related activities as distractions,” the administration stated.
Teenagers were more likely to be distracted when getting into crashes.
While 6 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes were distracted at the time of the crashes, 8 percent of drivers between 14 and 20 years old were reported as distracted.
