Jay man charged in May death of ODOT supervisor

A Delaware County man accused of looking at his cellphone minutes before he ran off the highway killing an Oklahoma Transportation Department supervisor was charged with manslaughter.

Robert Dryden Smith, 38, of Jay, was charged Friday in Delaware County District Court in the May 18 death of Jarrell Gray.

Smith was in Delaware County jail on Saturday with bail set at $50,000, the Delaware County sheriff’s office confirmed.

Gray, 47, who was a transportation superintendent in Delaware County, was working at a brush removal project in a construction zone west of Jay on State Highway 20.

He was the father of three sons, and had been with Transportation Department since December 1998.

Smith was traveling west on the highway. He told law enforcement at the scene he “had been distracted from his driving and watching the road while driving because he was looking down at his cellphone,” according to a probable cause affidavit.

After colliding with a Corrections Department inmates’ work van, Smith’s vehicle left the roadway and struck Gray, who had been standing behind a wood chipper that was attached to a Transportation Department truck, the affidavit states.

In a follow-up interview Smith said he “had not been paying attention to the road while he was driving because he was focused on trying to silence or turn off his cellphone because it kept making noises like it wasn’t staying connected to the charger,” the affidavit states.

Smith said he reached down to power the phone off and that he didn’t make any phone calls or send any texts before the accident. He said he could not regain control of the vehicle after it hit the van.