A Manitoba man has been charged with distracted driving after police witnessed a widely-circulated dash cam video that featured him aimlessly steering into the path of an approaching truck while talking on his cell phone.
On March 1, Ralph Ireland and wife Ifka were driving along Ontario’s Highway 17 near Kenora, Ont. when they came upon a green truck towing a trailer and driving directly into their path.
“F—! Oh, no!” Mr. Ireland yells, slamming on the brakes as a camera mounted on the dashboard of his Chevy Duramax 2500 captures the action.
In the final milliseconds before the crash, Mr. Ireland steers towards the bed of the green truck, likely sparing the life of its driver.
As Mr. Ireland explained in a later Facebook post, “we kind of had the choice [to] hit the cab of his truck and kill him and possibly us … [hit] the heavy duty tandem trailer and kill us or hit the box of his truck.”
The green truck was driven by Christopher Lord, 36, of La Broquerie, Man. Incredibly, Mr. Lord appeared to be completely oblivious to the approaching carnage right until the exact moment of impact.
A freeze-frame from the video perfectly captures Mr. Lord appearing to hold a device to his left ear, his hand effectively blocking any view of approaching traffic.
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry; that was totally my fault,” Mr. Lord can be heard to say in the video’s final seconds, just after the high-speech collision.
The occupants of both vehicles walked away relatively unscathed, and Ontario OPP charged Mr. Lord with failing to yield at an intersection.
This week, the charges were upgraded to include one of distracted driving after officers got a good look at Mr. Ireland’s dash cam footage.
via:http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/03/14/manitoba-man-charged-with-distracted-driving-after-video-shows-him-aimlessly-pull-in-front-of-speeding-truck/
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