Colorado trucker gets 110 years for crash

He should have taken the plea deal. But regardless, a future governor will grant him an early release in order to win some votes.

 

i'm not defending anyone at the moment. However, i feel that part of the problem is that there is little to none mountain training; When i went thru driving school there was absolutely NO discussion on mountain driving and absolutely NO mountain training. Maybe a month and a half after getting out of school i went OTR, on my first real mountain decent, i smoked the brakes----so i pulled over and waited for a good long while to cool----went for a walk.

i think another problem is mentality; When you're on a bike(even if you don't bike now, you can probably remember a time when you did) or in a car, when you go up a long upgrade, when you finally make it to the top you have a sense of relief----"wow i made it to the top, now i can just cruise down." The hard part is done. And for a car or bike, it kinda is.

Well, it doesn't work that way with trucks. If anything, the hard part of the task has just begun. If the engine overheats on the way up, you can just pull over. But you're not screwed in a sense that you're in serious trouble. If you lose your brakes on the way down, you really are SCREWED in a very, very, bad way.

Another thing dealing with mentality is it takes PATIENCE when descending a hill. It took so long to climb it, now i gotta go just as slow going down? Everyone's in a hurry all the time these days. Only recently have i gotten comfortable with going down hills very slowly--at the truck speed limits and actually enjoying it.


Anyways, i'd like to know:
1) In this situation, at what point did all this become criminal? If no-one had died or been injured, but property damaged, would he still have been charged?
All the times i smoked the brakes: Should that be considered criminal? Because it was pretty ###### irresponsible and dangerous.

2) How much driving experience did the guy have? And, as important, how much MOUNTAIN driving experience did he have? And how much on this particular stretch of highway?

 

In other words, a simple problem cannot be solved by neither the state nor the feds. Due diligence would be to wait for the after party.

 

Boils down to what's more important to you? The rights of others or your convenience?

 

this is where i have a problem with letting him off.
He tries to jump on a plane and head back home, after he kills 4 people. Take 4 lives, lose yours. I hope he never gets a chance to see the outside ever again. AND, who ever gave him a CDL should do time also. This is where the laws should change, you give someone a CDL and let them on the road, KNOWING they are not qualified to drive in that terrain, they also should do time in prison. me, im not qualified to drive in that kind of terrain. i`ve never been trained!!! i have 47 years driving,and should not drive in the mountains!!!!! unless properly trained.

 

There is no convenience, nor rights.

 

Touché, my friend. History has proven that to be true. Rights are certainly only "conditional" it seems even though they were never meant to be.

 

There was NOTHING like this shown while i was in school.

The problem is sort of like thinking and talking about sex without ever having sex. You don't really know what it's like until you actually do it.

More later.

 

The driver was Ill prepared and poorly trained with minimal experience.
He could have killed 4 in a premeditated murder and not received that harsh of a sentence.
For me bottom line is that this was an accident and the sentence is not in line with this crime.

I would hope that the accident would be a wake up call for the legislators and the motoring public in general on the lack of oversight in the training and preperation of new drivers as they enter the increasingly crowded field, where we all want it yesterday and we (trucks) are viewed as a hindrance and obstacles to be overcome on the road.
But sadly it won't be..
Like Hillbilly Jim sez..It ain't your highway or my highway. It's our highway.

 

States should just work together and come up with standards they all agree on and not even involve the federal government.
But that’s probably too much work for them ...