No prison for driver who was learning English on iPad when he struck and killed Minnesota trucker

A pickup truck driver has been spared prison after admitting he was learning English on his iPad when he went through a stop sign at a western Minnesota intersection and caused a fiery crash that killed a trucker.

Georgii Gabiev, 32, of New York City, was sentenced to six months in jail in Chippewa County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision on March 5 that killed Timmy J. Tarnowski, 59, of Pelican Rapids, Minn.

Judge Thomas Van Hon set aside a one-year prison sentence in favor of jail and three years’ probation. With credit for time served since his arrest, Gabiev was left with 69 days of jail time remaining.

Van Hon also ordered Gabiev to take a safe driving course and pay $5,437 in restitution to Tarnowski’s survivors.

Tarnowski was heading east on Hwy. 7, pulling a grain trailer full of sunflower seeds and a flatbed trailer, when Gabiev failed to obey a stop sign while heading north on County Road 4 and collided with the truck, the charges read.

“Tim pursued a career that took him on the highways, logging an impressive 4.5 million miles as a trucker,” according to his online obituary. “He worked for STS Trucking for several years and since 2014 owned and operated his own trucking business.”

According to the charges:

A state trooper sent to the intersection of Hwy. 7 and County Road 4 arrived shortly after 5 p.m. and saw a semitrailer truck on its side and engulfed in flames. Medics declared Tarnowski dead at the scene.

The trooper walked over to Gabiev’s pickup, looked for insurance documents inside and saw an iPad near the center console below the front dash that was still playing a YouTube video.

Gabiev told law enforcement that at the time of the crash, “he was listening to a program on an iPad that was teaching him how to speak English. ... He claimed to not have been looking at the iPad when he was driving.”