Reports shed light on January deadly crashes on Highway 63 in Boone County
(Editor's note: ABC 17 News has redacted the phone numbers of those involved in the crash from the reports.)
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Distracted driving played a part in at least one of two deadly crashes that happened within minutes of each other on Highway 63 north of Columbia in January, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Reports obtained by ABC 17 News show the driver of a car that killed a Moberly teacher and injured three others was trying to put his phone down when he ran into the back of their vehicle. The 20-year-old driver, whose name has not been released, was trying to make a call when they came up on traffic from a different deadly crash near Breedlove Drive.
"I was putting my phone down," the report says the driver told state troopers. "I was about to make a call. I was looking down at somewhere to put it."
The crash killed Ashley Apel, a 39-year-old schoolteacher at the Moberly School District. The district said she was in a car with three other teachers who were all hurt.
Boone County prosecutor Roger Johnson told ABC 17 News last month the patrol sent his office a referral for a deadly distracted driving case from that day. No criminal charges have been filed in the crash so far. The patrol has written nearly 250 tickets under the state's new law requiring drivers to use hands-free devices. A driver faces a maximum seven-year prison sentence for causing a deadly crash while distracted behind the wheel.
The patrol report also details the crash that happened earlier on Highway 63 near Pinnacles Road, which caused the traffic slowdown. The report says witnesses told troopers a car heading northbound drifted into the southbound lanes of traffic. The car, driven by a 55-year-old man from Moberly, hit the guardrail, bounced back into traffic and crashed into another car head-on. The crash killed a 32-year-old driver from Centralia.
The report said the driver who went into the wrong lanes of traffic "did not recall the events of the crash." He later died at the hospital.
