driving negligence opinion

Personally I dont see much difference in a Trucker eating or drinking coffee while traveling any different than a 4 wheeler going down the road on the way to work eating ceral with a spoon while reading the paper or maybe working on the laptop computer, putting on make up looking in the vanity mirror while driving or talking on the cell phone or for that matter texting. However it is a shame some died but dont just look at the truckers look at how much more the 4 wheel comuminty does in their vehicles while driving.

 

Why was the vehicle stopped in the road to begin with? ....more details please

 

I usually always eat and drink while driving. However i never take my eyes off the road and when i spill something i just let it go where its going to go and then say a whole lot of bad words till i find a place to pull over and clean it up. There is no excuse to rear end someone at that rate of speed with a stupid excuse like that. Sad what happened but 4 wheelers are the reason 4 a whole lot of car semi crashes ... Everyone on the road 2 4 6 or 18 wheels we all need to be heads up. Even when that happens things go wrong just something we all have to get used to.

 

There's not enough information posted to give an accurate opinion. Was is day or night, interstate, state road, local road? He may have had 15 seconds worth of visibilty, but how was the visibility at the time of the accident? Was the vehicle completely off the road or partialy? I'm not trying to sound like I automatically defend the trucker, but I need the facts. That's what is wrong with society today, they just assume the trucker had to be at fault. And when did we lose the right to do things that 4 wheeled drivers do on a daily basis, just cause we drive a truck? He may be at fault, and all of ot over a beverage, and it's sad. But I personally witnessed a woman almost run through a school crossing one morning cause she was trying to put her lipstick on. People need to stop stereotyping.

 

But negligence is not criminal http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19587396/

 

What is the purpose of your question(s)? Are you an attorney representing any of the parties or a state?

I personally don't believe questions like this should be answered unless the person posting identifies himself/herself and states the reason for these questions because perhaps the person is someone looking for a better way to hang a driver & answers could cause trouble from many different directions. While not an attorney I still understand some law.

Or is this merely someone attempting to make drivers look stupid?

I suppose all that time working for the feds made me an eternal pessimist but questions like this without an actual explanation could be a clusterf***.....and absolutely FUBAR and SNAFU as well. When I was a fed & answered a phone & somebody asked a question without identification I'd ask "Who are you"? But also as a fed I was required to answer all questions & the phones were all recorded for possible problems later. If anybody had any sense when I called them they should have said "send the question on DOT letterhead stationery.............here's my facimile number". It didn't make anyone mad. It's just good business sense. After all, I could state on a phone that I was President of the United States but that didn't mean I was. It's no difference here either and these statements can be printed which makes any statement here possibly more injurious to a professional driver.

From a retired federal DOT special agent/official

 

MSNBC is not an attorney. It could be criminally felonious depending on the state laws and a potential or real allegation against the truck driver in this instance comes from the state where the incident occurred; it doesn't go federal. In Re. any real, or potential civil complaint(s) which could go state or more likely federal, it doesn't matter because 1-800-not-an-accident just wants his/her 1/3 of what he/she can settle before going to trial.

 

I have seen many stupid acts by people in 4 wheels, From sex acts to reading the bible. All just as bad if you do it while driving. Eating, Not smart but even I do it, but no one ever said that I was smart, But what I eat and drink. is things like slim jims pretzels, and lots of Mountain dew.

 

Thanks to everyone here for not posting any more responses after my statement. I know there were a couple but my statement wasn't there and complete in time to catch the few after mine as it took a while to complete my response.

 

It dosn't make any difference what anyone says on here, for all intents and purposes it's hearsay and can't be admited into court. We're not "expert"wittness's, we're stating opions and an do so. there is way too much lack of info on this question, I'm very suprised anyone even got past reading it.