LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An Alabama truck driver was on his cellphone leading up to a crash that killed him and 10 other people in Kentucky in March, State Police said.
The 28-page report also says Kenneth Laymon of Jasper, Ala., was driving in excess of the 70 mile-per-hour speed limit and did not have his tractor-trailer under control when he crossed the median on March 26 and struck a van carrying Mennonites to a wedding in Iowa.
The report said Laymon, 45, tried braking 96 feet after entering the median. The van showed no signs of trying to avoid Laymon’s truck, State Police said. A witness said Laymon may have been traveling 80 miles per hour when the accident happened.
The report cites cellphone use and distraction on Laymon’s part as “human factors’’ related to the wreck. A spokesman for the State Police declined to say who Laymon was on the phone with or whether he was on the phone at the moment of the crash.
