As you’ve heard, Bruce Jenner was in a tragic and fatal multi-car accident last weekend. Reports vary as to whether Jenner may have caused the accident. Initial reports speculated that Jenner may have been texting at the time of the accident, right before his huge Cadillac Escalade rear-ended a Lexus sedan, sending it into the path of oncoming traffic. The driver of the Lexus perished when her car was hit by a Hummer. Jenner’s rep strongly denied that his client was texting. Additional photos taken at the time show that Jenner was smoking, not texting. He also passed the field sobriety tests and tested negative for drugs and alcohol.

Jenner knows that paparazzi follow him everywhere, which makes it even more colossally stupid that he was recently photographed talking on the phone and holding it to his ear while driving. It’s illegal to use a hand held cellphone while driving in California. Here’s more from The Daily News, which also has the photos of Jenner driving and talking on the phone.

Bruce Jenner was spotted chatting on his cell phone while driving in Thousand Oaks, California Tuesday — three days after he was involved in a fatal Malibu car accident.

Using a phone while driving is illegal in the Golden State. Violators face a $20 fine the first time caught and $50 for each subsequent offense.

The former Olympics champ, who was seen behind the wheel of a compact Ford Fiesta, turned over his cellphone records from the weekend to police after his involvement in the deadly pile-up.

[From The NY Daily News]

I live in a state where it’s still inexplicably legal to use a handheld phone and drive. It’s illegal to text and drive, but I see people doing it all the time. I’ve also seen police officers using cell phones (not their CB radios or whatever they use, regular cellphones) and driving. This angers me, because I lived in New York and Connecticut prior to this, and even 15 years ago it was illegal to drive and use handheld phones in those states. Of course studies show that people are still distracted with hands-free phones, but I do believe that outlawing hand held phones helps somewhat and deters texting. Jenner should know better. The fact that he was caught doing this makes me less sympathetic toward him when it comes to his accident.

The Daily News also reports that the driver of the fourth car involved in the accident, a Prius, was driving illegally on a suspended license. As news of this accident has unfolded, we’ve heard various versions of what happened. Police are still piecing it together as well. First we heard that Jenner rear ended the Lexus, which careened out into traffic. Then we heard that the Prius had unexpectedly stopped in traffic, causing the Lexus directly behind it to stop short and limiting Bruce’s ability to brake in time. Now TMZ has a follow-up claiming that Bruce may have caused the whole pileup. TMZ has photos of the accident progressing, and they theorize that Bruce should have realized that traffic had slowed and should have applied the brakes sooner. It’s unknown whether the Lexus hit the Prius first. Again, police are still figuring out what happened. Plus there are witnesses who say that the Prius had stopped first. I’ll reserve judgment until law enforcement comes out with a statement. I’m still judging Bruce for not using a hands free phone, though. Even that little Ford Fiesta he’s now driving has Bluetooth.

photo credit: FameFlynet