Truck driver sentenced to over 22 years for deadly crash while watching TikTok
A truck driver who Arizona prosecutors said caused a deadly accident because he was watching TikTok while driving has been sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
Danny Glen Tiner was driving on Interstate 10 near Chandler on the morning of Jan. 12, 2023, when officials said he failed to stop his tractor-trailer before running into stopped traffic. Five people were killed, and Tiner was charged with manslaughter about six months after the crash.
He pleaded guilty to lesser charges as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office said Tuesday that he was sentenced to four and half years for each count of negligent homicide, totaling 22.5 years in prison as each sentence will be served consecutively. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of eight years.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the justice system succeeded in holding Tiner accountable.
"As a driver, you have an obligation to pay attention to the road. To choose to access social media while driving, placing the lives of others on the line, is reckless," Mitchell said. "Five families are living through the pain of losing a loved one."
Online court records do not list an attorney for Tiner.
Tiner initially told authorities he was checking a message on his "electronic work tablet" at the time of the crash and did not have time to stop once he looked up from the device. But the Arizona Department of Public Safety said an FBI analysis of Tiner's phone showed he was actively using TikTok at the time of the crash.
Authorities also said he was speeding, going 68 mph in a 55-mph zone.
The victims were Ryan Gooding, Andrew Standifird, Jerardo Vazquez, Willis Thompson, and Gilberto Franco.
Standifird's mother, Sarah Standifird, told NBC News affiliate KPNX of Phoenix that her son was driving to work his coworkers: Vasquez, Thompson and Franco. The four men worked at AAA Landscaping.
Standifird’s Ford F-250 was rear-ended by the tractor-trailer driven by Tiner, which caused it and a Toyota Camry to be wedged underneath another semi-truck in front of the three vehicles. All four coworkers were killed along with Gooding, who was driving the Camry.
“My son died on impact, but he burned,” Sarah Standifird told KPNX last year. “I didn’t have a proper burial. I have ashes. And I had to identify him with his dental records. That was very hard.”
Gooding's fiancé, Nikki Johnson, told KPNX that he was also on his way to work at the time of the crash. The couple were set to be married in Las Vegas after being together for 10 years.
She told the station she began to worry when Gooding's work reached out to say he didn't show up around 11 a.m., roughly five hours after the crash. Johnson then failed to get a hold of him so she said she began calling hospitals as well as the police.
“I just kept waiting to hear the garage door, never heard it, and that’s when the trooper showed up; his face, I could just tell it wasn’t good news,” Johnson said.
