The Florida Highway Patrol released a video this week showing a truck driver looking at his phone moments before he drove his truck off a highway overpass.
According to WFLA, Samuel Colon, Jr. was driving his tractor-trailer northbound on I-75 near Tampa on the morning of January 4 when an unidentified vehicle cut him off. This led to a series of events that culminated in Colon crashing the truck through a concrete barrier and plunging over the side of the Fowler Avenue overpass to the roadway below. His trailer full of recycled metals hit the median barrier on Fowler Ave. and cracked open, spilling scrap metal everywhere and causing damage to oncoming traffic. Colon survived the crash with serious injuries and, thankfully, no one else was injured.
Footage from Colon's dashcam was released by the FHP this week, and shows that the mystery car that cut Colon off wasn't the only factor in the crash. ABC News published the FHP video, which shows both a forward view and a view inside of the cab just seconds before the crash. It clearly shows Colon holding his cell phone in his right hand, steering with his left, and not paying any attention to the road ahead. A readout at the bottom of the video shows the truck's speed–63 miles per hour. Colon finally looks up from his phone as he is cut off and tries to avoid the vehicle, but doesn't put his phone down until it's thrown from his hands when the truck rolls over.
Colon was released from the hospital on January 10, and was cited for using a cell phone while operating a commercial vehicle. The FHP is still searching for the vehicle that started the whole incident.
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According to WFLA, Samuel Colon, Jr. was driving his tractor-trailer northbound on I-75 near Tampa on the morning of January 4 when an unidentified vehicle cut him off. This led to a series of events that culminated in Colon crashing the truck through a concrete barrier and plunging over the side of the Fowler Avenue overpass to the roadway below. His trailer full of recycled metals hit the median barrier on Fowler Ave. and cracked open, spilling scrap metal everywhere and causing damage to oncoming traffic. Colon survived the crash with serious injuries and, thankfully, no one else was injured.
Footage from Colon's dashcam was released by the FHP this week, and shows that the mystery car that cut Colon off wasn't the only factor in the crash. ABC News published the FHP video, which shows both a forward view and a view inside of the cab just seconds before the crash. It clearly shows Colon holding his cell phone in his right hand, steering with his left, and not paying any attention to the road ahead. A readout at the bottom of the video shows the truck's speed–63 miles per hour. Colon finally looks up from his phone as he is cut off and tries to avoid the vehicle, but doesn't put his phone down until it's thrown from his hands when the truck rolls over.
Colon was released from the hospital on January 10, and was cited for using a cell phone while operating a commercial vehicle. The FHP is still searching for the vehicle that started the whole incident.
Related Video:
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