A man was arrested Thursday in connection to a six-vehicle crash earlier this year that left five people dead in Arizona after investigators said he was watching TikTok while driving his semi when the crash happened.
Officers arrested Danny Tiner, 36, Thursday after a lengthy investigation found him responsible, according to an Arizona Department of Public Safety statement. Tiner drove a tractor-trailer that caused the crash early morning Jan. 12, on a highway between Phoenix and Chandler. Two of the six cars involved were commercial vehicles, the statement said.
Tiner was booked into jail on a $300,000 bond and faces multiple charges including five counts of manslaughter, four counts of endangerment and one count of tampering with physical evidence.
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An investigation into how the incident began found that Tiner had been driving at 68 mph in a posted 55 mph construction zone while “actively using the TikTok application on his cell phone at the time of the collision.”
In the statement, DPS said that Tiner said he received a message on his electronic work tablet and went to look at it. When he looked back up, traffic had come to a halt, but he was unable to stop in time to avoid a collision.
Before Tiner’s arrest on Thursday, DPS troopers and detectives conducted a “knock and talk operation” at his home in relation to the fatal collision, according to court documents.
The January wreck produced a fiery blaze that closed down Interstate 10 south of Phoenix for hours.
DPS spokesman Bart Graves said the collision left people trapped inside their cars amid the fire.
“The crash with the five fatalities, we believe a semi driver that was distracted did not slow for slowing traffic that was part of the second crash and slammed into two vehicles in front of them. Another semi was involved in that crash, it was a chain reaction. In all, there were six vehicles involved.” Graves said at the time. “One of the vehicles was crunched in between the two semis, which caught fire. Another semi also ignited.”
Graves said the fire’s intensity was “so great,” it took firefighters nearly four hours just to gain control of the fire.
Rescue efforts to recover the bodies couldn’t start until nearly four hours after the crash occurred.