Colorado trucker gets 110 years for crash

It’s crazy how the recruiters will take anyone with a cdl. If u go to Florida u can have a interpreter pretty much take the written test for u, and if u can drive around the block in a automatic truck your qualified. If u can’t read the road signs or speak the language your disqualified end of story. That’s not that much to ask.

 

Doesn't the supreme court have final jurisdiction? If pushed that far?

 

As far as road signs go, they are designed to be the same most anywhere in the world.
A stop sign is still a stop sign even without the words for example.

 

No question there are layers of failure here. But ultimately the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the driver. 110 years? Too long? I don’t know.
But then again, a drunk driver killed three of my friends in a VW back in 1976. They were burned beyond recognition, ages 16, 16, and 17.
The Caddy driver who killed these young men got a $100 fine and a suspended sentence.
So maybe my take on personal responsibility is just a tad biased.

 

It will be appealed in Colorado's highest court then if the desired result is not attained it will be appealed in federal court.

 

I’m curious what kind of plea deal was offered.

 

My problem with this case is the conflicting testimony the man has given. He was coming from Wyoming that day going south on 40 then east on I-70. He testified that after he got thru the Berthoud Pass on 40 he stopped to use the restroom and check his brakes. Everything looked ok so he kept going. The Berthoud Pass has some serious downgrades with 180 degree switchbacks that have posted 20mph restrictions. He may have been inexperienced but he safely made it down thru the pass so he knew what he was doing to some degree (although people who saw him driving in that area saw him with smoking breaks, he said they were lying).

Then he makes some conflicting accounts. He said he noticed his brakes had failed on a down hill grade west of Gennesse Hill on I-70 (about 2 miles before the runaway truck ramp) but he also testified his breaks didn't fail until he got past the 1st two signs for the runaway truck ramp (he can read English enough to testify that he went past 2 runaway truck signs). So which was it? The second sign is 3/4 mile from the ramp. Plenty of time to get it the lane for the ramp.

He said that he had never seen a runaway ramp that wasn't up the side of a hill but in the video you can see the ramp entrance starts before you can actually see the ramp so that shouldn't have been an issue.

Also in the video of him going past the runaway ramp he is going along at the same speed as traffic which is 65 mph. If his breaks hadn't failed yet why was he going so fast? Very reckless.

He wasn't ignorant of the downgrades in the area as he a gone thru the area a few times before as a passenger in his uncles truck. And there are all kinds of signs warning of the downgrades. He said that once his breaks failed he was hoping to make it down the mountain to where it levels off so he could pull over but there was the accident in the way.

In my opinion the man isn't being honest about what happened that day and the jury saw thru his conflicting accounts. I think he knew his breaks were smoked before he got to the runaway ramp but he kept going thinking it would be less hassle to try and make it to the bottom of the mountain then to go into the runaway ramp. A fatal decision. Maybe 110 years is a bit much but he still needs to be locked up for a good amount of time. I'd say 40 years. With good behavior he'll be out in 15 to 20 years and still have a good chunk of his life yet to live.

Contrast what Mr. Aguilera-Mederos did compared to what a man in the documentary/movie "Big Rig" did. (it's on youtube, his story starts @32:40). He lost his breaks coming down the mountains into Bullhead City, Arizona. Got up to 100mph. He said all he could think of was that he didn't want to kill anyone and if it was his time to die then so be it. So he did the honorable thing and ran his rig off the road. Trashed his rig and landed himself in the hospital but no died needlessly.

 

In this case it is, because he intentionally chose to hit those vehicles rather than take the runaway ramps or attempt to steer around the vehicles in the shoulder.

I'm sure that makes their families feel sooo much better.

But in all seriousness, the fact that he didn't plan to kill them only means that he was charged with manslaughter instead of murder. And even though he didn't plan to kill them, he also didn't try to avoid killing them.

 

Same.

 

I'm all about personal responsibility, and this guy needs to be held accountable absolutely. But EVERYBODY who shared in his training or lack of it, and made this possible should share the blame and be made examples of. Until those people are held just as accountable as the driver, nothing will change.