Cell phone use cited in Ky. crash that killed 11

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An Alabama truck driver was on his cell phone sending and receiving calls leading up to a crash that killed him and 10 other people in Kentucky in March, Kentucky State Police said in a report on the wreck.

The 28-page report also says that 45-year-old Kenneth Laymon of Jasper, Ala., was driving in excess of the 70 mph speed limit and did not have his tractor-trailer under control when he crossed the median on March 26 and struck a van carrying Mennonites to a wedding in Iowa.

The report said Laymon tried braking 96 feet after entering the median, and a witness said Laymon may have been traveling 80 mph when the accident happened near Munfordville. The van showed no signs of trying to avoid Laymon's truck at that point, state police said.

The report cites cell phone use and distraction on Laymon's part as "human factors" related to the wreck. Trooper Charles Swiney, a spokesman for the state police post investigating the wreck, declined to say who Laymon was on the phone with or whether he was on the phone at the moment of the crash.