4-year term for I-94 trucker viewing porn when he fatally hit highway worker

A sentence of 4⅓ years was imposed on a trucker who authorities believe was watching pornographic videos in the moments leading up to him speeding through a construction zone and starting a chain-reaction crash that killed a highway worker along a Twin Cities area interstate.

Tate R. Doom, 48, of St. Paul Park, was sentenced Monday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the crash on Interstate 94 in Rogers in October 2018 that killed Vernon C. Hedquist, 59, of Pillager, Minn.

This crash occurred two months after Minnesota's law prohibiting motorists from holding their phones while driving took effect.

With credit for time in jail upon his arrest, Doom will serve less than three years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

Hedquist's road crew was working on the afternoon of Oct. 2, 2018, on the closed right lane of I-94 near County Road 81. Doom's semi rear-ended a pickup truck and trailer merging to the left.

The trailer separated from the pickup and struck Hedquist, while flying debris hit and injured a co-worker. Both were standing on the shoulder as part of crew working on a drilling project in preparation for road work starting months later.

State Patrol investigators determined that Doom's semi was traveling 72 mph, slightly above the posted limit of 70 mph, and the pickup was going 50 mph.

Troopers seized two cellphones from Doom's semi for forensic examination, which showed he deleted 14 video files from Pornhub.com.

Authorities recovered the files, and they show that he began playing them at 1:40:53 p.m.

His last of the 14 videos, which has a running time of 5 minutes and 14 seconds, started at 2:07:41 p.m., less than 90 seconds before Doom's semi struck the pickup and trailer.

"It appears, based on the investigation, that he was watching pornography at the time of [impact]," Chuck Laszewski, spokesman for the County Attorney's Office, said at the time charges were filed nine months after the crash.

Doom denied using his cellphone at the time of the collision and contended he was traveling at 50 mph.

He was driving at the time for Vermeer of Minnesota in Burnsville, which sells heavy equipment for recycling and forestry needs.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482