Alpha Oumar Diallo, 42, was charged with reckless driving that caused death and given six to 15 years with zero days served
A trucker was sentenced to prison for causing a fatal crash in Michigan while taking a personality quiz on Facebook.
Alpha Oumar Diallo, 42, was charged with reckless driving that caused death and given six to 15 years with zero days served.
Diallo also has five other counts that will run at the same time and include lesser prison time.
‘You want to talk about prison. I think I’m living in one myself,’ said Kenneth Revoir, of Pittsfield Township, Michigan, according to M Live. ‘I lost everything I had, pretty much.’
The 75-year-old was seriously injured when Diallo crashed into stalled traffic on U.S. 23 near Willis Road in York Township on July 8, 2015.
Jury in the Washtenaw County Trial Court heard that Diallo never hit the breaks when he was taking the quiz on his phone.
He hit several vehicles that had been stopped in a construction zone.
Revoir added that he had to stay in the ICU for 33 days and spent months recovering, after.
He claims to have lost his new home and having to cancel a trip to Alaska with his wife.
‘You want to hear the worst of it,’ he added. ‘I can’t even take a shower anymore by myself.’
83-year-old Edyth Ellsworth’s family spoke to the judge, remembering the woman who was killed.
Her daughter, Carol Darnielle, had been driving the Toyota Camry that was hit by the truck, and was seriously injured.
‘When you drove your truck into our cars, the damage to me was a minor brain injury, a broken neck, broken back, broken ribs and a shattered leg,’ she said.
‘That was just a list of my physical injuries, not even the worst part. The injury that will never heal is my broken heart that you caused when you murdered my mother.’
The woman’s son, Russ Falkner, railed on Diallo for being on his phone when the crash occurred.
‘How many time do you hear people say, ‘Don’t text and drive? Don’t text and drive?” Falkner said.
‘You weren’t just texting, you were taking surveys. “What County Best Suits My Personality to Live In.” Really? That’s what my mother died for?’
Defense attorney Michael Rex shared how Diallo had experienced loss when his father and brother died in his native Sierra Leone.
Diallo shared that he understood loss and that he was sorry, needing to gather himself occasionally overcome with emotion.
“I have lost people dear to me,” he said.
“All I can tell you is, I’m sorry. If there was a way I could go back in time and change something, I would, but I can’t. I’m very sorry.”
Rex motioned to keep Diallo free on bond but Judge Brown denied the motion.