Over 22 years in prison have been handed down to a truck driver who, according to Arizona authorities, caused a fatal accident while driving while viewing TikTok.
On the morning of January 12, 2023, officials claim Danny Glen Tiner was driving on Interstate 10 close to Chandler when he failed to stop his tractor-trailer before it collided with stopped traffic. Approximately six months after the five fatalities, Tiner was accused of manslaughter.
As part of a deal with the prosecution, he entered a guilty plea to lower-level crimes.
His penalty for each count of negligent murder, which will be served consecutively, is 4½ years in jail, according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. The sentence total for all counts is 22.5 years.
The maximum punishment for each crime is eight years. According to County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, Tiner was successfully held accountable by the legal system.
“As a driver, you have an obligation to pay attention to the road. To choose to access social media while driving, placing the lives of others on the line, is reckless,” Mitchell stated. “Five families are living through the pain of losing a loved one.”
Tiner’s lawyer is not listed in online court documents.
At first, Tiner told police that he did not have time to stop after looking up from his “electronic work tablet” during the incident because he was reviewing a message on it. However, Tiner was actively using TikTok at the time of the collision, according to an FBI review of his phone, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
He was speeding, according to the authorities, traveling 68 mph in a 55 mph zone. Ryan Gooding, Andrew Standifird, Gilberto Franco, Willis Thompson, and Jerardo Vazquez were the casualties.
Standifird’s Ford F-250 and a Toyota Camry were forced to get jammed beneath another semi-truck in front of the three cars after Tiner’s tractor-trailer rear-ended them. Along with Gooding, the driver of the Camry, the other four coworkers perished in the crash.
“My son died on impact, but he burned,” Sarah Standifird stated. “I didn’t have a proper burial. I have ashes. And I had to identify him with his dental records. That was very hard.”
Nikki Johnson, Gooding’s fiancée, told a local news outlet that he was also en route to work at the time of the collision. After dating for ten years, the pair was scheduled to get married in Las Vegas.
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She told the station that around five hours after the collision, at approximately 11 a.m., she started to worry when Gooding’s employer contacted to say he hadn’t come up. When Johnson was unable to reach him, she claimed she started phoning hospitals and the police.
“I just kept waiting to hear the garage door, never heard it, and that’s when the trooper showed up; his face, I could just tell it wasn’t good news,” Johnson stated.
