A truck driver who fatally crashed his tractor trailer into a retired couple from Maine last year admitted he was watching Netflix at the time of the accident, police said.
The driver said he was using his cellphone to stream from the application when he crashed into Geoff and Elizabeth"Betsy" Gattis, according to a report.He said he was not watching the program and was instead listening to the program through the truck's audio system."He wasn't watching Netflix. He was listening to audio," defense attorney Robert Andrews said in a Thursday statement.
The screen was turned away from the trucker and the show playing was about teenage magicians, the report noted. The driver's streaming was not the cause of the crash on the Maine Turnpike in January 2021, Andrews continued. The car in front of the driver slowed abruptly and took an exit off the turnpike, he said. Other cars had already slowed, but the truck driver ran out of time to stop himself, according to Andrews.
The trucker, who was indicted last summer on a manslaughter charge, has maintained a consistent story since the accident, the report noted.Andrews intends to file a motion to have the charges dismissed, he said.