INDIANAPOLIS — A Michigan man faces a reckless homicide charge after allegedly killing an Indianapolis woman in a five-car pileup.
It happened in October 2023 on the city's northwest side. State troopers believe the crash was the result of distracted driving.
Court documents allege Gavin Mosley sent 28 messages and took 15 Snapchats within 27 minutes — all while driving at 60-65 miles per hour in heavy rain down I-465, near West 86th Street, around 6:40 p.m. Oct. 5, 2023.
"It's heartbreaking because we know that phones are a distraction while driving," Indiana State Police Sgt. John Perrine said.
Police say Mosley was using his phone up until he crashed into the back of a stopped car, killing one woman, sending another to the hospital and causing a five-car crash. According to court documents, Mosley hadn't put his phone down for nearly the entire hour leading up to crash.
"If you are using your phone, whether it be on social media, to text, to change your music, to look at a map, if you are using your phone, you are putting yourself and others in extreme danger because of how quickly things can change," Perrine said.
(NOTE: the above video is from the night of the crash).
Investigators say data from Mosley's airbag control module shows he was going 65 miles per hour until 0.4 seconds prior to the crash between 6:35 and 6:37 p.m. Information pulled from his phone shows he may have been taking a selfie on Snapchat three seconds before the wreck.
"We see more and more distracted driving causing crashes, and sometimes, we don't even know it was distracted driving," Perrine said. "Rarely is someone going to come up to us and say, 'I was using my phone and that's why I bumped into the car in front of me,' so we recognize the statistics show it on the rise, and we also know it's a lot more common than we probably even know about."
In 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said drunk driving was the leading cause of driving deaths nationwide, with more than 13,000 crashes. As for distracted driving, that came in as the third-leading cause, with more than 3,300 deaths.
Police ask drivers to remain hands-free if they need to use their phone. They also suggest putting your phone in "do not disturb" mode so you don't get distracted by texts or phone calls.