The semi-truck that crashed into several police and fire vehicles, killing an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer in early May, was “tossing cars around like they were toys,” according to one witness statement.
Officer Tim Huffman, 47, was killed on May 6 while investigating an earlier crash on Interstate 8, about 40 miles east of Yuma. An 18-wheeler driven by Jorge Espinoza, 33, had plowed into Huffman’s patrol car and several other vehicles at about 5 p.m.
Espinoza, who faces 20 felony charges including second-degree murder, was on his cell phone at the time of the collision, according to 600 pages of case files obtained by The Arizona Republic on Friday.
The documents and a video from an in-dash camera revealed that Espinoza was on Facebook looking at pictures of provocatively dressed women at the time of the wreck.
Espinoza, who pleaded not guilty in June, told police he was looking over his shoulder at a passing truck when suddenly he felt the violent jolt from the crash. Espinoza was not injured.
He told police he never saw the multiple DPS and fire department vehicles on the roadway, or an officer frantically waving his arms trying to get his attention before he jumped out of the way.
