Trucker was watching Netflix on phone when he caused I-35 crash that killed couple, charges say

A trucker was watching a Netflix show on his phone when he caused a three-vehicle wreck last summer amid slowing traffic on a southern Minnesota interstate that left a husband and wife dead, according to charges.

Billie Joe Grimes, 55, of Lancing, Tenn., was charged Friday in Rice County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and one count of criminal vehicular operation in connection with the crash on Aug. 25 along northbound Interstate 35 just south of Faribault

Grimes was charged by summons and is scheduled to appear in court on May 15. In a brief interview Monday with the Star Tribune, Grimes said he was unaware of the charges alleging he was watching an episode of “Rust Valley Restorers” and denied that he was viewing anything on his phone.

“The phone was on, but it was in the back of the truck,” he said. “I had left it there on that morning.”

Killed in the crash were car occupants Matthew H. Hansen, 57, and Cimberly E. Hansen, 56, of Urbandale, Iowa. Their shared obituary said they were in Minnesota to visit family.

The Hansens met while students at Iowa State University. Cimberly Hansen worked for 21 years with the Bridge preschool in Johnston, Iowa, until her retirement in spring 2022. “Cimberly was a sweet, kind, and joyful presence in our preschool family,” the Bridge said on social media days after the crash.

According to the criminal complaint:

Grimes told a state trooper he left Casey, just west of Des Moines, about 10 a.m. in his semitrailer truck and was on his way to Rogers to make a delivery.

He denied being on his phone at the time of the wreck, explaining that he was actively downloading an episode of Netflix’s “Rust Valley Restorers.”

A driver who stopped at the crash scene told a trooper that she heard Grimes talking on his phone and saying he was distracted when he looked down at his radio.

The charges, however, point out that audio from Grimes’ own front-facing dash camera was from an episode of that series titled “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.” Troopers found two shows downloaded on his phone, but neither was from “Rust Valley Restorers.”

Grimes was “watching a Netflix show as he approached stopped or slow-moving traffic as he approached a construction zone,” prosecutors concluded in their complaint. “The defendant was distracted to the extent that he failed to apply the brakes before he crashed into the Toyota and killed [the Hansens].”

Grimes said a driver up ahead made an abrupt lane change that caused a chain reaction crash when “everybody slammed on the brakes,” the complaint read.

“I just didn’t have time to stop,” the charges quoted him as saying. “I didn’t have time to react, and I couldn’t stop the truck. … I couldn’t stop ‘cause [the truck was loaded].” Grimes had more than 22 tons of cargo with him.