Truck driver had his eyes off the road for '18 whole seconds' before crashing into elderly woman's car causing her death
Shocking dashcam footage has now emerged of a truck driver using his cell phone moments before he crashes into a line of traffic and ended up killing a 66-year-old woman.
34-year-old David Shields crashed his truck into the car of elderly mission worker Yvonne Blackman because he was too busy texting to notice that a line of traffic had formed in Dumfries in February last year. On September 28, prosecutors on the case released the footage of him checking his phone before realizing that he was going to crash into the traffic that came up ahead very fast. The man had previously pleaded guilty to causing Blackman's death by dangerous driving and has now been jailed for five years at the hearing at the High Court in Glasgow that took place on Friday.
The Daily Mail reported that Shields, who had previously served as a lance corporal in the Royal Highland Fusiliers in Iraq and Afghanistan, sobbed as he was being led to the cells in the courthouse. 78-year-old Ralph Blackman, Yvonne's husband of 38 years, has pleaded with the public to stop using their cell phones while driving.
In Feb 2017, Yvonne Blackman was waiting in stationary traffic on A75 Dumfries bypass when David Shields, who was driving a lorry & distracted by his mobile phone, failed to see the traffic ahead of him. He crashed into Yvonne's car & killed her. Today he was jailed for 5 years. pic.twitter.com/NdTTtpHdJO
— DumfriesGPolice (@DumfriesGPolice) September 28, 2018
