(CNN) Two women and a baby were killed in Indiana on Sunday when a semitractor-trailer smashed into eight vehicles, police said.

Matthew Lewis Small, the 34-year-old driver of the semi, told officers he was driving on Interstate 65 and looked away from the road to set his coffee mug down when he ran into the cars that had been slowing down, the Boone County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

Small has been charged with three counts of reckless homicide and booked into the Boone County Jail, the sheriff's office said. CNN has not yet determined whether Smalls has an attorney.

Matthew Lewis Small

Witnesses told officers a fire broke out after one vehicle was pinned against the guardrail by the semi and another was pushed over the guardrail and flipped over, the sheriff's office said.

The incident happened northbound on I-65 near the Zionsville exit, north of Indianapolis, the sheriff's office said.

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