A senior officer has admitted he was watching porn behind the wheel when he crashed into another driver. He has now resigned.
A police officer in Florida, USA, has resigned from his job after it emerged that he was wrongly accused of watching porn on his phone.
The accident occurred on November 6th on County Road 435 in Sorrento, Florida, where the officer hit an innocent motorist.
Footage from the officer's bodycam shows him speeding straight towards Red, suddenly jerking the steering wheel, and an airbag deploying on his head.
This is written by the local media WESH .
The officer, Tristan Macomber, initially explained that he had braked for a school bus and that the brakes on his patrol car had jammed. He also claimed that the ABS light had been on ever since the patrol car had last been serviced.
The police department where Macomber was employed launched its own internal investigation into the accident. And that's where the footage from the officer's bodycam became the conclusive evidence. There was no school bus or faulty ABS brakes. On the other hand, the footage shows that the officer was sitting with his phone out in front of him.
Macomber later explained that he was looking at text messages from colleagues. However, the investigation showed that these were pictures and not messages.
The officer later changed parts of his explanation and admitted that he looked at "inappropriate images" on his private phone.
The images turned out to be of a so-called 'pornographic nature'. The police subsequently concluded that Macomber was wrong because of the images.
The authorities concluded that Macomber, in addition to using his hand-held mobile phone during the race , had not been wearing a seatbelt, and that he had otherwise been lying down throughout the race.
He was about to be fired, but chose to resign because it turned into a dismissal letter on gray paper. The case has caused a stir as it involves a police officer who abused his position and endangered his own and others' lives by watching porn under the influence.
Whether the case will have further consequences for the now former police officer is not clear from the story, but it sounds very likely.
