A truck driver has been charged in a deadly Sunday crash in Indiana that authorities say appears to have resulted from distracted driving.
The wreck, which involved a semi and eight other vehicles, happened shortly after 11 a.m. on Interstate 65 northbound, near the Zionsville exit, according to the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
Mathew Lewis Small, 34, of Grandville, Michigan, faces three counts of reckless homicide, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office. Small said he had looked away to put down a coffee mug when he struck the other vehicles in slowing traffic.
Officials identified those killed as Mariah Tomey, 21, Hadley Tomey, 1, and Kaylee Kirk, 19, all of Lebanon, Indiana.
“A sad day for two Boone County families,” Sheriff Mike Nielsen said in the release. “The loss of two young women and a one-year-old child.”
All three people killed were in a vehicle that was pinned against a guardrail. Fourteen other people in the accident had non-life-threatening injuries.
I-65 northbound and I-865 westbound were closed approximately four hours during the investigation.
“DO NOT drive distracted or impaired,” Nielsen said. “Keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.”