A trucker is facing multiple felony charges after his truck rammed into stopped traffic on the highway, causing a 28-vehicle accident which killed four people. The driver says that his brakes failed and he wasn’t able to stop.
Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was driving on I-70 in Colorado near the Colorado Mills Parkway exit last week when he claims he lost control of his truck due to brake failure. According Aguilera-Mederos, when he saw traffic stopped in front of him, he tried moving his vehicle onto the shoulder of the road, but found that there was an already a semi in the way.
Witnesses confirmed Aguilera-Mederos’ story and told investigators that he was wide-eyed at the time of the accident. Authorities say that there was no evidence of drug or alcohol impairment at the time of the crash, nor that he had intentionally caused the wreck.
Despite that, Aguilera-Mederos has been charged with four counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault. Authorities say that Aguilera-Mederos passed by a runaway truck ramp going approximately 85 miles per hour, but didn’t use it. A video of the incident showed that Aguilera-Mederos’ truck was already out of control at the time.
Thank you very much. Our partners at #LakewoodDPCO will appreciate every piece of information that becomes available. https://t.co/GGTMsr1kVe
— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice) April 27, 2019
According to the Denver Post, prosecutors will have to prove that the driver acted recklessly in order to convict him on vehicular homicide charges. Jacob Martinez, a Denver defense attorney who was interviewed by the Post, says that even failing to perform a full pre-trip inspection could be enough to fulfill the “recklessness” requirement.
Aguilera-Mederos’ wife put out a statement on Facebook on behalf of her husband. In it, he maintained his innocence and promised to fight the charges. He also thanked those who had reached out offering their support.
“I never thought I would have the world out there supporting me,” read the statement. “I never imagined that there were so many people standing by me.”
Source: denver, cbsdenver, denverpost, westword, denverpost
It’s a sad situation. However, you should have gone into the sandbox. Another article I read said you were only 23 yrs old. You lack experience to make the right decision. We all screw up at times. I don’t support you, but I feel sorry for everyone involved. I’m sorry for your bad call.
But 18 is old enough now days… /s
In about 4 years when the 18 year olds have killed enough people they’ll consider reversing that.
Actually, I envision that will be the excuse they use to get rid of drivers for the autonomous vehicles.
That sounds very logical indeed. Hegelian dialectic in practice.
Those trucks will still need a human to stand by in the event the truck goes haywire, there was one that lost it’s memory in Colorado that crashed that’s what I read so don’t be to think that day will here anytime soon
Autonomous trucks are coming, will you or won’t you. But they’ll still require a driver at the wheel
Not in our lifetime. Been trying, but too many deaths with them too. Longer schools, better training, better people behind the wheel. Drivers and owner operators need to take back this industry
18-21 an individual can hold a CDL but it is with intrastate restriction. That places the person to drive in their state only where they should be aware of particular issues for driving a CMV such as mountain steep slopes or high winds depending on the local.
18-21 age is not necessarily an issue, I know lots of farm and ranch kids I would by far trust than some of the “experienced drivers” I have seen on the Interstate systems.
He either was rushing and lost control or simply didn’t know what he was doing, but either way, he should have taken the sand box rather than killed all those people. This is why everyone of us are losing respect from everyone.
They start putting 18 y/o behind the wheel….They should have a GOOD trainer for at least 6 months. And not in Kansas either.
Oh no it’s just another part of big governments plan ( population control system )
I do support him, as even after nearly 40 years without an accident, I know, there but by the grace of God go I. I’m not conceited enough to think it couldn’t happen to me. That’s why I have the 5 keys of the Smith system and 10 rules of backing posted in my truck and review them as part of my pre-trip. We are all human and subject to mistakes. It’s very sad that his life is ruined by a bad decision that resulted in an accident. He didn’t start his day with any malicious intent, only attempted to feed his family. If I were one killed in the accident I would not want his and his families lives to be ruined as well.
But your point of only being 23 should be noted by legislators attempting to put 18 year olds in trucks driving interstate. Lest they think that an 18 year old will be the wisest idea to solve the truck driver shortage.
There’s is no driver shortage.
18 yrs old,there will be more of the same types of accidents like this and worse.
Sorry – no. He was clearly out of control uphill of the sandbox. This isn’t a “decision” to be made, it should be a simple reaction. He already knows he’s cooked his brakes- they aren’t coming back. The ONLY option was “get off the road”. If there’s no ramp, hit the ditch. Scrub off on the cliffs and concrete walls he’s passing.
When you sit behind the wheel of ANY vehicle, you are expected to make correct ( not necesssrily good) decisions. If you don’t- you pay the price.
I don’t think 85 mph in Denver is safe. On that basis alone, he could be convicted of reckless driving. So sad that a young man’s life is ruined probably due to poor training.
he didnt take his job seriously with regard to mountain driving, and that is why he burned up those brakes. he didnt take reading signs in english seriously, thats why he didnt take the escape ramp. that sounds pretty malicious to me🤔 theres no doubt in my mind he blew it off and said “i need to make money, i’ll worry about that stuff later”
I agree that 18 isn’t old enough, but he was and is old enough to know the responsibility he had taken on with this job. He was more worried about the truck and load than the people in front of him. Almost bet that this isn’t the first time he’s ran a truck down a big hill like he did.
I feel sorry for everyone involved it is a sad situation. The sad thing is that there is a lot of companies out there that is not training drivers just putting them in the trucks to make money. That is a horrific situation to be in when you can’t stop, you don’t know what to do if you haven’t already thought about it, your survival instincts kick in and override all logic. You have to already know what your going to do in that situation.
His age has nothing to do with it. 18 year olds in the military are operating heavy equipment everyday, all over the world, and are TRUSTED to perform the mission of their leaders. Lack of experience is more likely the cause, and self preservation rather than sacrifice.
Well said
I support you sir, 30 years and 4 millions miles out here. Congress, the FMCSA and there ignorance is 100% responsible for this accident and all accidents on todays highways. The improper training requirements, ignorant hos rules and elds have turned this industry to into the most dangerous industry out here. Congress knew what was going to happen, they had years of proof in front of them, but too many of them are profiting from this garbage. I wish you the best of luck in your fight.
Totally agree with most of this statement. However I do also fault the training companies that push people through their programs just to be seat warmers.
What in the world does HOS and ELD have to do with not doing a pretrip inspection he will not be found guilty for vehicular homicide but for not doing his pretrip he will be found guilty for reckless endangerment. As a professional driver he should have done a pretrip he may have found a defect all drivers should be held accountable for their actions that inspection is very important and before you say anything i have 45 years experience and i know failures happen but i do my inspections and treat my truck like a weapon always in good shape or she don’t roll
No, it’s not his fault . It’s everybody else’s fault that he made bad decisions! What a crock!
Sounds like you haven’t ever grown up Philip. I know you’re perfect because of the nail scares and a crown of thorns.
He was being sarcastic. No one is to blame but the driver. No one. Not bad training, not the company for pushing him out into the world – the driver is 100% in control and responsible for how he drives his/her vehicle.
Doesn’t have anything to do with being perfect. It has to with being human, we all make mistakes. That being said, making a mistake requires owning it, accepting responsibility for it and the consequences. Most people it seems today want to blame something, someone, or circumstance, yourself included. How do you grow, learn, or improve without doing so…you don’t. Who’s to blame for that?
Got it in one.
There is no fight. The video shows him clearly avoiding the sand box. He was only worrying about getting to the bottom of the hill and continue on yo delivery
I would look into the issue, what was the other truck doing on the shoulder? Doing his 30 minute break? This driver was trying to avoid the accident in the last moment (yes, too late), but someone was parked on the shoulder. Idiots treating shoulders as parking during traffic backups. Common sense would indicate that it’s not a good idea to do that on a foothill. Unless he used in as a runway too. But why stopped than? The other thing is, why was the traffic stopped? He needs a really good lawyer, that will explore all of that. This could happen to anyone, he didn’t use the ramp either afraid of fines (which is absolutely ridiculous, that you can be fined for using a runway ramp) or because he still thought he had „enough brakes”. We all make mistakes. I feel sorry for families of people killed in this accident, but don’t let the public opinion spin this as if the guy was evil or did this on purpose. I don’t see that he was already out of control when passing the runway ramp. Just because people in the car say this doesn’t mean they are right, they don’t know how to operate the truck.
Doesn’t matyer. Too many factors show he was out of control and had opportunities to stop before the accident
Passing other cars down hill with a full load, pushing a car off into a left shoulder…he’s out of control or a driver that shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a truck
Even if he did do a pretrip mechanical parts do fail while driving was semi on the shoulder taking a 30 break or was it really broke down decision making comes with experience
As long as his logs reflect doing the pretrip, but if not he’s screwed no matter what.
Just because his logs show a Pre trip, doesn’t prove that he actually got out and inspected his truck.
Your absolutely correct, I was just making that point that he is guilty no matter what if his logs don’t have a pretrip even if he did do one.
Responsibility comes with the privilege
Thank you. Well said. The cure to our industry is better trained and responsible drivers
he was out of control. Did he burn his brakes at Vail Pass?Did he burn his brakes at Eisenhower tunnel?
Not known. Did he burn his brakes at Georgetown?. Not known.Not yet established.
Where was the load picked up? What route did he take?
Did video show him out of control at Lookout Mountain exit?
Yes.
He ran the pick up into the third inside lane ditch, as he blew by the run away ramp. The brakes ,by video, were not smoking then.
They clearly were at exit 263,Denver West, where,if he had known the terrain, his last chance was the off ramp eastbound and into the wide ditch, into the long chain link fence. Since the You Tube video at that point and look at the SUV that pulled way right at the off ramp and looks to be aware that a crash is about to happen.
For this truck driver,If he had only known.
It would be better to own up to this disaster than say it wasn’t his fault.
One local station, as they repeated the “breaking news”, would play the local ambulance chaser’s Truck accident commercial.
That lawyer can’t bring anyone back to life, but he sure can sue the life
out of you.
God Bless the families of the dead and injured.
I thought common sense says when your truck is out of control use the escape ramp.
Can’t buy common sense and schools don’t teach it or encourage it
” Jacob Martinez, a Denver defense attorney who was interviewed by the Post, says that even failing to perform a full pre-trip inspection could be enough to fulfill the “recklessness” requirement.”
Hey there Jake, when is the last time you fully inspected your personal vehicle before driving into work?
Your comment is simply ignorant. He is talking about the law and we all know that most pre and post trips are logged at minimum times. But if you had to perform one for an audience (judge with a stopwatch) there is no way it could be done properly in the time most of long them in.
Unless as an O/O, the companies get what they pay for…never got paid to do a pre-trip. Did LOTS of mountains delivering beer from Denver to parts west. But then, I’m not 23 y/o either.
The kid got in the wrong gear starting down and burnt his brakes out.
The COMPANY was at fault for not providing better training.
Not sure he burnt his brakes out, if you watch the video there is no smoke coming from the trlr or truck wheels.
I’ll accept the company has a duty to ensure good training- but even a chimp would know to dive for ANY escape once the brakes are gone. Bypassing a runaway truck ramp is – was – catastrophically stupid.
or… he jammed on the brakes at 85 mph and stood on them. In that case, they would have failed too from the heat generated by the fiction softening the pads.
Ignorance is bliss, right…. the 49CFR does not state how long a pre or post trip must take. It simply states that a pre or post trip MUST be LOGGED. As DOT officers, we would like to see a 30 min inspection time, but we cannot give you a violation based on the amount of time it took you to do the inspection. What it does mean for those who do not do a thorough inspection… I will usually find a violation.
Trying telling that to the jury…in that little green book that dictates what makes us safe to run down the road. Today, you have warning lights, buzzers and automatic slack adjusters to stop you or give you time to stop. No, he was just being dumb and reckless and unfortunately it hurts us all
Partial responsibility belongs to company that put him in truck. Hopefully state will review his training and instructor that signed off. Obviously lack of training played a role in this awful tragedy.
Had bad record for not keeping brakes working properly, but still, doesn’t matter. Your in charge behind that will. You have the power to put truck out of service till fixed.
We still don’t know how exactly you brain will work in stress mode. He was scary already and maybe didn’t see that ramp due to focusing on stay on the road and don’t flip…I support him. This is accident, should be covered by insurances…sorry for families lost their relatives.
you are supposed to read EVERY sign while driving on the highway in that truck, i understand being scared, but he failed to follow procedure. if he had done that, his truck never would have reached 85 in the first place.
I agree. We all get scared, but training takes over and we do our best to make the outcome good
If he was scared then shouldn’t be behind the wheel
Living here in Colorado you learn to drive the mountains really well. After seeing all of the video and all of the reports CSP has put out, this guy will be lucky if he doesn’t get 20 years. Some media outlets here are trying to pin it on his company, but too many drivers here have thrown the b.s. flag at them. He didn’t gear down and didn’t have a clue he was in trouble until it was too late. Having done it o few 1000 times. It is no problem coming down that part of I 70 weighing 80,000lbs and not having to touch your breaks at all. The only time I have ever seen or heard of someone who was geared down and using their Jake have to hit the sand trap is when they had a gear box failure.
I agree with Eric Whaples regards to lack of training for Driving and maintenance.
I have seen way too many drivers fly down the hill hitting their brakes constantly.
Passing me by while I roll down on my Jake brake at a reasonable speed.
The other frustrating point is the scale who do inspection on us fairly regularly, why they don’t inspect and remove these trucks that are not maintain properly.
They prefer to inspect the good guys with the nice clean trucks.
I have mixed feeling about support for this guy. I would like to see his truck? find out if he has a maintenance log?. If he was ever inspected by scales, what type of report he received?
And if it is his habit of always flying down the hills?
Company reported to have had a bad record
Age isn’t the only factor, the training of new drivers is so lacking in hours behind the wheel is criminal in itself.
I would bet that young man from South Texas ( flat land) has never seen a mountain pass before, let alone the Rockies!! I-70 is not for the faint of heart nor the inexperienced
5 years of driving, no accidents no speeding tickets and no fines. I don’t support him. His lack of judgement costed 4 people their lives!!!! He saw the sandbox and picked to get into the left lane. Unacceptable! This is why they are there. But poor judgement costed 4 families their loved ones. We are truckers we should know better!
Well said and needs to be said more
I live in the pacific northwest where driving pretty much anywhere involves using some of the most dangerous road systems in the world. We thought the Fraser river run was hard on brakes, then they opened the Coquihalla highway. Bottom line is brake failure is not what the term suggests. If you did a satisfactory pre-trip and left the yard, then the failure is in the operator. Knowing that he passed a runaway lane then killed and injured people only moments later speaks for itself. Too much speed, too much brake, and not enough common sense. He killed 4 people. At the very least he is guilty of criminal negligence causing death and injury.
We just saw a 25 year old get sentenced for the death and injury of a whole hockey team up here. He managed to kill 16, mostly teenagers.
We can find fault in a number of the cursory conditions that are only along for the ride once a driver turns the key. His failure as a professional driver is just that. May the punishment include a lifetime ban. As for incarceration, he never intended to kill anyone that day, but he did. Forgiveness and mercy must be part of the equation, unless there is no repentance.
Well said
It is my opinion that the trucking company should be held responsible for this accident, NOT ONLY THE DRIVER!
So where does the largest percent of responsibility lie? If the driver would have been properly trained on truck safety, to include; proper daily vehicle inspections, proper brake check inspections prior to downgrades and proper decisions on when to make use of a runaway ramp, this accident could have been avoided. It is very clear from reading this story that he should have taken the runaway ramp! Why did’t he? Lack of training?
In another story I read that the company he was driving for has a history of defective equipment on the road. Is the trucking company paying for his legal representation? Why not?
The extreme fear present when blowing by a runaway ramp at 85 MPH is certainly more than most 23 year old drivers can possibly comprehend. For that matter, I will guess nearly 100% of the drivers on the road would have the same fear of steering an 85 mph runaway into the sand pit!
Trucking companies always leave the drivers out to hang! For that reason.
I support the driver in this case!
My heart goes out to all of those killed and injured. Please direct your anger not only at the driver but mostly at the company he was driving for. They are the ones that could have prevented this accident with proper training and safe equipment. This young man didn’t wake up in the morning with the intentions of going out and killing people.
Don’t forget the schools pushing people through in four weeks. When a school advertise that no one fails, there is a problem. This job isn’t for everyone
Brakes weren’t even smoking in the video clip if he was cruising downhill w/ a full load at 85 mph. Was he playing on his phone and not paying attention, or what? Another poorly trained driver it appears. Ruined a lot of families lives plowing into stopped traffic and made truckers everywhere once again look like a barrel of monkeys once it made national headlines. Glad I exited off the road 6/mo ago. Waaaaay too many distracted drivers driving period not paying attention.
I’ve done much driving out west. It takes seconds on a steep hill to go from legal to FLYING dangerously fast. Its basically a controlled fall.
There are many signs out that way that inform TRUCKS of the legal speed…and this at the top and several times on down the hill.
yep, your probably right
There no excuse ,always have your vehicle under control .
As soon as it’s not regaining control is job one.
He must have had some control and gambled on regaining it without the embarrassment of the pea trap.
Bad gamble,bad results, bad loss.
What’s not right is that he will be treated different than any other trucker with bad brakes.
should of went to the sand box for sure!!!!no brakes smoking at all….
He was just being a cowboy and getting to his destination as fast as he could.
I can see the scenario, not gearing down quite enough, using brakes a bit too much and they get hot and weak, not going quite fast enough to think hitting the runaway ramp needed, thinking he can control it and make it to level. But then hit stopped traffic by surprise. Could happen to any driver, especially one without long experience. It’s a situation that has happened many times without incident. But once in awhile the combination of circumstances makes for a bad accident.
And while small points can always be found that weren’t quite perfect, if there was no serious neglect, blaming the driver when there was no evil intent would be inappropriate. The accident itself will be enough to make him exceedingly careful in the future. It would certainly do that for me.
Now the one that happened that killed an acquaintance of ours, with a driver falsifying logs and driving 20 hours strait, then running a light and killing someone. Driver definitely at serious fault there.
I’ve been driving for thirty years and I still go down a steep grade 1 gear lower than it took me to climb the up side, no load is worth my or any other persons life
he was going plenty fast enough to make the choice and take the ramp, listen to the video above in this article. those guys were recording him because of how fast he was going and they SAID “he needs to take the ramp!”
Always expect the worst and plan for it. Old school. Know he was going down long drop. Should have known that he had runaway ramps. Should have know that at 85, he had lost it and wasn’t going to recover. Yes, he didn’t expect a back up, but who does? But he knew he couldn’t stop so whether he ran into the back of another vehicle going down, or with what happen, he should have made the right move and taken the sand box rather than killed all those people. Made us all look like out of control idiots bent on killing people just to make money
I’m not sure this driver was thinking, or was doing at the time prior to the devastation on that horrific day where innocent bystanders we’re waiting due to another traffic incident, I hope he wasn’t talking or texting on the phone, or for that matter eating and not paying attention to the traffic around and in front of him, speed was also part of ordeal, if had a truck or trailer with bad brakes then he should have that equipment down, but being 23 or 24 tells me this driver was probably forced to drive the equipment, probably his first trip and most likely his last depending how this goes, don’t drive a rig and pull a trailer with bad brakes, for that anything that is right, get it fixed, if the company doesn’t want to fix it, walk away, don’t put yourself or those using the same roads in jeopardy, not worth it
Until the pay rate for skilled truck operators is steadily in the six figures, this is the caliber of driver that is going to remain on US roads.
How long have I been in trucking? Over 40 years.
Same here.
I was at a midwest Roadranger and three mexicans piled out of a truck
registered out of East L.A. The one driver that spoke english told me they bounce back and forth from California to the East Coast. Only stop for fuel… the other two chattered spanish the whole time while refueling.
I’m believe some older more experienced may agree, as I only 12 years, 9 in an alcohol tanker. The issue here mainly is not being geared down enough, need to use brakes minimally then, and choosing the runaway ramp. The proper gear and engine brake is buying you time for decision making at much slower speed to maintain control 25, 35, 40 mph versus 85. Granted the brakes may have failed and been no use to slow more stop, and even miss the ramp worst case. The impact then isn’t good, exceptionally less.
I used to get funny looks from other drivers at times going down so slow. The last thing I wanted to do was smoke brakes or lose control of 47k of 192 proof alcohol. Also an old driver once told me, ” you can go down a mountain a 1000 times too slow, you’ll only go down one once too fast.” That always stuck as great wisdom.
I wish this young man, his family, and the lives of families impacted the best in dealing with this tragic event.
Yeah dad was right!!
His brakes functioned- at least, there was no apparent physical failure until he cooked them- video from farther down the hill clearly show the brake smoke as he nears the collision point.
Well said
Lots of comments here. Some informed and some not.
I saw the original news report. It appeared that the driver was traveling at a high rate of speed before the accident.
I do not know the road, or the area , or the mechanical condition of the truck.
But complete brake failure is unlikely.
Long- some 10-mile- steep downhill, trucks limited for the first half or so to 45mph. About 3/4 of the way down the 45mph zone is a clearly marked and clearly visible runaway pit.
He passed the pit- clearly out of control.
Farther down the hill, he’s still at insane speeds, but brake smoke is clearly visible billowing out behind him. No mechanical fault until he cooked his brakes.
They were working just before he ran into everyone!
Just being dumb and in a rush
Dear Mark, I was not born in USA…I am pretty sure to obtain CDL in USA only! English. (Cars…? you can choose your language, but not in all states). English is my third language and I am 8 years SAFETY driver in USA with clean record. I done Academic English program(2 years 4 semesters). Now I am a CDL A driver after 6 months trucking school and I love my job…. while this driver fly 85 mph realize he needs stop and have 2 choices: take people lives to stop his truck or take his own driving off the cliff…. or, your decision depends where you were born?
Well in this country, we ALL follow the same rules. And taking someone’s life is murder. Might have different levels towards punishment, but still he choosed to worry about himself over others and he will pay the price. And, yes a driver could get killed going that fast into a sand box, but there are those that have lived, and walked away from it going even faster, so still not an excuse to take those people’s lives
Unfortunately no matter what happened, the justice system needs to put the blame on someone and obviuosly the easiest target is the driver. No matter how good the pre trip inspection is done, can be failures on the road, but immediately they will assume that the driver didn’t bother doing his pre trip. I hope he gets released. Yes, sorry for the victims, but we all know that going on a busy HWY is alwaya risky and you never know.
The lack of training and professionalism are for real seen on today’s truck drivers. You would think they are road warriors fighting to get there first. You can blame it on Elog but also companies that hire drivers and put them on extreme driving conditions going thru mountains and bad weather for which these youngsters aren’t properly trained for.
An fully loaded truck is a 80000 lbs bullet when running away. Knowing what to do and following DOT roadways instructions could save lives.
If you bypass a runaway truck ramp when your brakes are failing, your judgement as driver, is called for scrutiny.
Let’s do trucking safely.
So much at stake.
Well said and needs to be said more often
The ramp was there for the exact reason he gave for his speed. It’s a safety net of sorts and that should tell all the people reading this that the road have a severe grad. If not then no need for the runaway ramp. It’s not going to turn out well for this young man.
captain of the ship. take the hit. run it in the ditch.
It was a logging truck, the driver was a Denver local, a 4-wheeler recorded him in his truck coming up behind him on his right on the shoulder lane at at least 70 MPH. This was recorded and shown on tv and still up on line, he plowed into the first truck that was stopped on the shoulder due to an accident that closed all lanes. The actual crash was just a moment out of view as it passed the 4-wheeler, but was seen by him, and scared the crap out of him as the out of control truck roared past. No brake smoking, appeared he was trying to pass stopped traffic by running down the right side shoulder to the exit ramp.
All I gotta say is he should have took the sand box
I don’t get it this video shows a white tractor pulling a flatbed with load of lumber, the other video where the guy screamed as the white truck drove right past him on the shoulder was hauling a 40 ft ocean container……it’s not the same truck, what’s going on
Yah it is look again it was a flatbed
they were both white flatbed with lumber… put your glasses on🤓
People jumping on the bandwagon showing how dangerous we are. Welcome to the wide world of media. Smile you’re on camera
If the grumpy old bastard super truckers out there where half way better teachers it wouldnt matter how old the driver was. When was the last time you found your a$$ on the side of the road because your equipment failed. He shouldve hit the ramp whats done is done. Drivers wreck every day unfortunately he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Accidents happen only god knows why
He should have hit the sand box 85 down hill he knew he couldn’t stop open your eyes people like him are the ones that give us a bad name
Yeah the wrong place!! Driver’s seat
Exactly
Accidents happen. This, however, was a wreck. It was caused by driver stupidity. Period.
This grumpy old driver got criticized for being hard and teaching right, so yes the schools pay a big part, but it’s the schools competing with each other and making money, not putting out good drivers
Why in the hell would he lie about his brakes failing ? No reason to lie. I am sure they did !
Brakes failure could happen three ways. Poorly serviced, worn, and marginal to begin with. Excellent condition adequate brakes that developed a defect, and failed. Excellent condition adequate brakes that failed due to operator error.
Brand new truck with perfect brakes could start down a mountain loaded not overly heavy, meaning near gross. Once you’re rolling fast enough, that an attempt to slow overheats brakes, they fade, drums expand, you push harder creating more friction and fade, to the point of failure. Then one can say, the brakes failed.
They do in each instance, which one was it, actual equipment or operator of the equipment?
Incompetent drivers running late? What do people think is going to happen??
after he ran the pick up into the left shoulder just past look out mtn.,
he would be passing deadman’s curve, a long blind curve, morrison road
exit. Two ladies in a drop top caddy were hit by a truck there many years ago, knocked into the inside median and killed.
I was there.
how many passes had he already traversed on route? Did the load of lumber come from Parshall? Over Berthoud Pass? Vail/Eisenhower?loveland? Did he stop and check his brakes or adjust?
Because it’s the easiest excuse, and yes they failed when he tried to stop a heavy loaded truck going 85 just a few lengths aeay. Weren’t designed to stop on a dime!
You can’t learn anything in a few weeks of training and new recruits think that if you have a automatic truck and crome bumper your a truck driver!!!! No you are not!!! I Have been doing this 20 years and always learning. It’s up to those who mandate the licencing to change the way we train new truckers but let me say when I was 22 wrote my learners AND WAS ABLE TO DRIVE A SEM I was just over the border with my trainer and he made me drive through Seattle rush hour I am 50 now And never have had a accident and
Still have a perfect safety record. You either have th ” common sense ” to be a truck driver and you do it safe and well or you have accidents and peoplpeople get hurt. He is young and saying his brakes failed is the easiest thing at the time. Give it.time he may tell.the truth.
Well said. But facts speak loud for themselves
im not a driver, but wouldn’t for one thing…
his full on jakes help him slow down?
and what about dynamiting his emergency brakepots??
wouldn’t that slow or lock his trailer and truck up?
just saying
Jakes are not a fix all and they do fail that’s why when a driver knows what the road is like ahead of him, we have manatury pull offs to check brakes, tires, load securement and lights. To be safe for everyone. A driver should be in a state that he can stop within the working ability of his brakes, hence the lower speed limits for trucks. If not, this is why sand boxes were designed. To safely stop a truck and give a driver a chance to live rather than drive off a cliff. Hope this helps
And dynamiting his brakes works great in the movies but rarely works. Most of the time you destroy what brakes you have and lost all control.
I’ve only been driving seven years but I’m not a youngster and when I heard the words of wisdom regarding mountains, I took it seriously and that’s, “you can go downhill too slow hundreds of times but you’re only going down too fast, once”. My ‘96 KW with a worn out M-II wouldn’t hold a load back on a steep hill unless it was in third gear, and as embarrassing as it was, I went down many a steep grade on the shoulder, four ways flashing and I never touched the brakes. Too bad if folks had to pass me. I can only think that if I was in a similar situation to that driver, I’d have been ballsy enough to turn that steering wheel and drive straight off the road rather than take someone else out. It’s a big responsibility but that’s what we signed on for.
BINGO !!!
Might of had some trash in floor I didn’t see no smoke in video but it’s a bad deal
Tractor trailers have spring brakes on them when parked and can be activated when needed and will activate when you loose you air pressure. If the brake chambers were working properly they would have slowed him down!!
Not, at best would had at that speed ripped them off or flipped him. Seen it many times doing road service calls
I read elsewhere that he required a English interpreter in court. Though that is no guarantee that he was not proficient. If English was not my first launguage and I was bring tried for homicide you bet if be using one too.
There are times when people need a “Legalese to English” interpreter in court. The way some laws are written is so twisted they can get you dizzy just trying to read them.
They might want to check to see if you have enough of a brain before allowing you to comment here let alone drive a truck. The fact that you can’t spell simple words like “first” and “and” makes me think you don’t. And the same section of the FMCSR you refer too may disqualify YOU since you seem lacking in basic English language skills. The driver was an idiot regardless of what language he speaks or what his immigration status (weird, you spelled that one right and screwed up the 3 and 5 letter words…). He screwed up and he gets to pay the price now. Keep the other bs to yourself.
No matter what way you cut it, the whole thing is very sad and lives are ruined! If his brakes truly did fail, I could not convict him.
yea u can because if they failed, he shulda took the sand box instead of flying past it, look at the video above!
I could, choose to go to left to keep stable and run a car off the road than to safe lives and take sand box
How you figure? The court appointed interpreter.
did not doing a pretrip really cause this? everything could have been working just fine..but if he went too fast down the hill in too high of a gear, the brakes would fade and he wouldn’t be able to stop, reguardless of how thurough a pretrip he did.
I’ve been driving for 20 plus years no tickets and no accidents by the grace of God. This story will be another way to punish the real hard working truck drivers on the road today. I want say pre trip pos trip inspection. Safety first. May God be with all you drivers out there.
Safety first. Well said. Safe trip
yea that makes no sense that they can take the written test in spanish, but the road test has to be in english, its inconsistent. they should have to do both in english- period.
It does matter, with age comes experience that can’t be taught. It only comes through doing something consistently and proficiently over time. No amount of teaching replaces that, no matter how great the teacher or the student.
Same truck bought with 615k on it 11 years ago, now has 1855k on it. If a failure is, at the time transmission was replaced, a fuel line was also.The mechanic didn’t tighten it completely. First trip 8 hours in it quit, stopped on shoulder, found it, tightened it, and got going. The other incident was a brake not releasing fully on one wheel. Pulled over checked it, got a temp fix, drove to truckstop few miles away, fixed it also. So once or twice. I’ve had other minor issues found in pre or post trip, and during breaks that had to be addressed. Not on the roadside or towed though.
Idk how people are so quick to defend him… Obviously he’s making a series of mistakes here, the end result is people LOST THEIR LIVES. Accidents happen, but when you’re neglecting safety protocol while handling a deadly weapon and people die, you’re not the person I feel sorry for.
I don’t see a truck driver with brake problems in this video. And even if I did, he passed a truck escape ramp! What I see is a person not paying attention and most likely looking at his cellphone. Probably texting or watching a video because he is 23 years old and bored. If he wasn’t on his cell phone, he was most certainly either falling asleep or just not paying attention.
I have 3 million miles on the road and I agree with the sentiments above that the trucking community and the general public need to reign in these greedy bottom feeding trucking companies that are putting the general public’s safety at risk for a better bottom line.
It’s these trucking companies that are responsible for ELDs, the bad HOS, most of all trucking accidents that aren’t 4 wheeler related, and just ruining truck driver’s reputations in general.
These trucking companies in concert with insurance companies have created this environment. The OOIDA is the only voice we have and it is faint and quiet. Only the general public has the power to reverse this. Will they ever do it? I say no.
only ONE ramp at lookout mountain on Mt. Vernon grade.
Kelly has the correct solution! I’ve hauled “big iron” since the 70’s , it’s not uncommon to gross 140k and on some occasions near 200k but, I had more axles and brakes. I’ve always used the mind set that , I may have to stop around the curve or at the bottom of the hill ! Lower gear to where your jake will hold you with light intermittent braking, you’re going a lot slower than you want but, good brakes are there if you need them. Trust me- it works ,
Yes sir, well said. Thousands of drivers have made the same trip safely so why didn’t he is the question