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Police: Trucker was streaming Netflix at time of deadly crash

PORTLAND, Maine — A police report from a deadly crash that killed a retired couple in Maine says the truck driver at fault for the accident was streaming a show on his cellphone at the time.

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Geoff and Elizabeth “Betsy” Gattis, of Falmouth, Maine, were killed in the January 2021 crash when the car they were in was hit by a tractor-trailer, forcing their car into a second tractor-trailer that was in front of them, WMTW reported.

The driver, David Herring, admitted the show was playing, but his attorney, Robert Andrews, told The Associated Press, “He wasn’t watching Netflix. He was listening to audio.” Andrews told the AP the driver was instead distracted by a vehicle directly in front of him that abruptly slowed to exit the Maine Turnpike.

The Portland Press Herald was first to report the driver was streaming a show about teenage magicians, but said the driver told troopers investigating the crash that the phone screen had been turned away so as to not be a distraction.

Herring was indicted on a manslaughter charge last summer, but his attorney told WSCH he plans to file a motion to dismiss the charges.