Colorado trucker gets 110 years for crash

Well that’s the point, prosecutors use pleas to score convictions. They are willing in many cases to let very violent criminals go with light sentences as long as they plea.

 

Where to start?
Maybe start with not giving a CDL to someone who cant read english.
I don't know who trained him but it was woefully lacking.
What happened to SAVE THE BRAKES!!
Anyone ever hear you can go down a hill a thousand times to slow but only once too fast.
Truck drivers make a million decisions a day and he made at least twenty wrong ones that day.
If it was your loved one who was killed that day the sentence was just.

 

He got the minimum on ALL charges... I think the judge showed leniency.

 

The judge's hands were tied. He was forced to issue the sentence as it is because of legislative overreach. This speaks volumes about Colorado's contempt of truck drivers in their posh state. If you've ever been through Vail in the winter, you know those skiiers and snowboarders simply hate our guts. The Colorado legislature has made increasingly more and more draconian anti-trucking laws over the years.

Having said that, I do agree the driver needs to be punished but we have protections in this country against 'cruel and unusual punishment'.

 

Notice none of the bureaucrats in the state that gave the driver a CDL are paying a price for licensing someone without being able to read English. When does DOT ever put a foreign driver out of service for inability to speak or read English? Does it ever happen? Also the 110 year sentence given to the driver is because the legislators decided the sentences for the numerous convictions in this case are required to be served one after another. Imagine a simple drunk driving case where the drunk driver scrapes the sides of 15 cars as he weaves back home. The penalty for hit & run causing minor damage to each car might be 6 months in jail. But because of how the law is written the drunk driver MUST be sentenced to 6 months in jail for car 1. Then after that he serves 6 months in jail for car 2, so on and so on. The judge who heard all the evidence said at trial the penalty should be 20 years for these crimes. The legislature who heard none of the evidence made rules that required the 110 year sentence.

Lawyer discussing this case.

 

This is just my opinion but
This case should NOT have been tried in COLORADO, it should have been tried in Texas. or better yet Federal court.
Maybe that;s where it will end up IDK.

 

i'm not sure i understand what you are saying...

the crash HAPPENED in Colorado.

 

I know but the driver didn't have a colorado license and a CDL is in effect an International license.
federally regulated.
JMO

 

there is no crime of federal jurisdiction

 

This may get me flamed, but here goes......
I will bet he didnt get up that morning and think, today's the day..
I feel sorry for him somewhat. He came to america looking for the promise land. He couldn't speak or write the language but ended up in a semi doing the mountains. At the end of the day he takes all the blame.
How about the idiots that make it easy for him to come here, and require and provide zero language integration or training do a little of his time.
Maybe the person (if there was one) that trained him, do a little of his time

Maybe the moron idiot inspector that signed his CDL, and turned him loose.. ......should do a little, or a LOT of his time

Maybe the owner of his company and or safty guy, that let him loose, barely able to speak the language, and probably not read, no mountain experience, ...
...should do a little of his time.

He probably had no idea what a runaway ramp was, nobody told him.
I'll bet he had zero pretrip training, mountain training, he was a warm body to hold the wheel. And get paid crappy wages.
But yet, he gets thrown under the bus, and they all go on with their lives like it didnt happen, and unfortunately,
it will happen
again, And again, and again.
And more like him will be thrown under the bus.
It's not right.