A man who authorities say appeared to be driving while using his laptop computer died Monday when his car crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a Hummer.

California Highway Patrol officers found the victim’s computer still running and plugged into the cigarette lighter of his 1991 Honda Accord.

The 28-year-old victim was a computer tutor in Chico, Calif. The Sutter County coroner’s office was withholding his identity until his family could be notified.

“The screen itself shattered from the impact, so we can’t be sure if he was working on it or not, but we think from the way it was found that he might have been working,” said Sgt. John Pettigrew, a CHP spokesman. “It’s a straight road right there, and it doesn’t look like he fell asleep or anything else.”


The couple in the Hummer escaped the 8:30 a.m. collision with bumps and bruises, Pettigrew said.

The crash, near the intersection of California highways 99 and 113 about 30 miles north of the capital, totaled both vehicles. It closed a section of Highway 99 south of Yuba City for about two hours.