Motorist, 20, hit and killed 89-year-old great-grandmother in horror car crash 'because she was looking at Facebook on her phone while driving'

  • Abby Sletten was charged with negligent homicide on Wednesday
  • Phyllis Gordon was killed when Sletten drove into the back of the vehicle that she was a passenger in in North Dakota in May
  • She had eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren
  • A search of Sletten’s cellphone by police 'determined that [she] was viewing pictures on her Facebook application… at the time of the crash'

By David Mccormack for MailOnline

Published: 00:54 EST, 5 September 2014 | Updated: 02:03 EST, 5 September 2014

 A 20-year-old woman was so distracted checking Facebook on her cell phone that she drove into the back of another vehicle on a North Dakota highway and killed an 89-year-old great-grandmother, prosecutors say.

Abby Sletten was charged with negligent homicide on Wednesday after the May 27 crash in which Phyllis Gordon, who had eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, was killed.

A search of Sletten’s cellphone by police ‘determined that [she] was viewing pictures on her Facebook application… at the time of the crash,’ the criminal complaint read.

Abby Sletten, left, was charged with negligent homicide on Wednesday after the May 27 crash in which Phyllis Gordon, right, who had eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, was killed in North Dakota

‘Sletten had also sent and received several text messages since she departed from Fargo.’

A driver heading north toward Grand Forks told a Highway Patrol officer that he was traveling at 80 mph when Sletten’s SUV passed him on the left, reports the Star Tribune.

An SUV up ahead slowed to make a U-turn, but Sletten - distracted by photos on her cell phone - never slowed her 85 miles per hour as she plowed into the back of the vehicle and killed passenger Gordon.

Investigators found no evidence that Sletten of Hatton, had tried to brake before the crash, which 'suggested the possibility that Sletten may have not seen the vehicle in front of her or that she was possibly distracted while driving,' read the complaint.

Several people used CPR to try and revive Gordon, left, to no avail, while Sletten, right, told a patrol officer that she had no recollection of the crash

Sletten told a patrol officer that she had no recollection of the crash.

Gordon’s granddaughter, driver Jennifer Myers, 34, and Myers’ daughter survived their injuries.

Several people at the crash scene tried to use CPR to try and revive Gordon, but to no avail.

Gordon was a farmer and baker and was an active community member in Ada, Minn., according to her obituary. 

North Dakota enacted a 2011 law prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving.

 

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