A truck driver is facing charges of criminal vehicular homicide after allegedly taking his eyes off the road to look at his cell phone, causing a fatal crash.

The accident happened on Tuesday, February 27th at approximately 12:15 p.m. in Washington County, Minnesota.

According to KSTP News, 28-year-old Samuel Wayne Hicks was driving his semi truck on Highway 36 near Lake Elmo Avenue when he looked down at his cell phone, and that’s when he struck the Toyota sedan stopped at a red light. The force of the impact then completely destroyed the sedan and the motorist, 54-year-old Robert Bursick, was killed in the crash.

Initially, Hicks told police that he saw the stop light turn green from afar, and then became distracted by another vehicle, causing him to strike the Toyota sedan stopped at the red light, but later admitted that he had been texting his girlfriend about a new place to live on and off for several hours, and that he had looked down at his phone to check out a potential property, which is what caused him to crash.

He also told investigators that he had been driving since 4:45 a.m., around eight hours, at the time of the crash and that he was familiar with the highway and drove it nearly every week.

Minnesota State Patrol was then given the dash cam video from Hicks’ rig, showing footage of both inside and outside the cab. In the footage, police say that Hicks can be seen with his phone in his hand for several seconds and does not appear to slow down at all before striking the Toyota sedan.

“[Hicks] appears to be texting or accessing an application on his phone, and for an entire eight seconds, the defendant’s eyes are looking down at his phone,” investigators explained.

“He [Hicks] made no effort to brake before striking Bursik’s vehicle while going 63 miles per hour in a 65 mile-per-hour zone, and… it appeared he was still looking down at his phone at the moment of impact,” investigators continued.

Hicks is now facing a maximum of 10 year in prison on charges of criminal vehicular homicide and up to $20,000 in fines. As of March 1st, no court date had been set.

Kay Erickson, Mayor of Amery, Minnesota, the town that was home to Bursick, says that the town is still in shock from the tragedy.

“To think this all could have been avoided if someone would have just put a phone down and paid attention to just one thing,” she said.

“And that was driving a truck. This just didn’t have to happen.”