Driver gets 110 years for Colorado accident

I can't stress this enough, he did not do this on purpose. I want to remain civil, because these threads get carried away, and are deleted, and this is much too important not to talk about it. Okay, you have a kid, a KID, who should be delivering newspapers, operating one of the most dangerous vehicles on our highways in the worst possible place. Stick "kids" like this out in the desert, where nothing can happen, for crying out loud. He had no idea the consequence of his actions, maybe never experienced brake fade, and literally didn't know what to do. I'm sure it was sheer panic, and nobody thinks clearly under those situations. Would you put a pilot with 6 months training in a hot air balloon in a commercial airplane,,,in a thunderstorm ? Of course not, YET, someone, like I said, whoever hired this kid, is the one to blame, and maybe they did get something, I didn't follow it completely. Got what he deserved,,,I don't know who "deserves" anything today, the people he hit "deserved" to live and consequence for his actions? Absolutely, but again, is this supposed to be some kind of warning? Fat chance. This will fade into history, untrained drivers will continue to fill the jobs guys like me won't do anymore. We're dancing around the obvious, in our society today, that depends on transportation more than ever, we simply have to admit, this is the cost of our modern society, whether we like it or not.

 

I also want every CDL holder to show basic level of speech recognition, pronunciation, reading and writing in English. There are international standards that certify these skills.

I don't think his English was an issue. Perhaps not even entirely his driving skills, he might have passed the exam normally. Hirshbach, Swift CDL graduates are also often ill prepared before they are turned loose.
The driver neglected the brake check, the elementary recognition - visual- of the sloppy road profile, with conjunction of the initial "to have it under control" speed and perhaps the gross weight. Then he panicked, unable to make the right choices to avoid the accident.

That's lack of training and if that is so, it should have been recognized by his company which shoul also be blamed.

I am disgusted by his attorney playing the racist card or trying to blame it on the truck parked on the shoulder. The more I see this BS the more I am afraid to turn White Supremacist myself.

The sentence was too harsh. We need to make a distinction between him and the guy who rammed into lo the parade in Waukesha WI.
I'd give him 30 years. Parole after 20.

 

I agree and disagree. 26 yo is not a kid but 110 years is excessive. But like you said, if we as a society are willing to lower safety standards to get workers in a lower and lower paying field with tough working conditions then we must also accept the unintended cost.in doing so. Those four

 

The sentence is a product of inflation. If they gave him 110 years - and he actually had to serve 110 years - it would be different. Instead, the Colorado justice systems says if you're sentenced to 15 years, you'll serve less than 6. As others have already pointed out, he'll only do less than 40% of his sentence.

There are two facts that make this case different from your garden variety murder. One, he drove his truck into 24 parked cars at a high rate of speed! It's only by the grace of God that more than 4 weren't killed. Two, he never took responsibility for his actions. He claimed to have blacked out when he chose to steer his truck into a traffic jam. He blamed the truck driver parked on the side of the road. He blamed racism. He claimed the tragedy was an, "accident" as if his actions had no bearing on the deaths of innocent motorists. I've had brakes fail, dollies catch fire and tires blow. Never killed anyone.

 

Delete... double post what's going on?!.

 

I'll never understand why they do that. That's a sheer stupidity and mockery of human intelligence.
The might as well sentence him to 200 years and then reduce the sentence by 90%.
I don't know what this guy previous record is but accident is an accident, unintended and unfortunate action for which he is at fault but they practically did not give him hope for another chance. The prison will f him up the same whether it is 30 or 50, which by then, he might be better off staying there until he dies, anyway.

 

He’s a 1099 company driver
They ain’t liable for poop

 

These Cubans immigrant drivers are everywhere here in Florida. They obviously just buy their CDL.

I’m bilingual, and prefer English but if I have to use my Spanish to communicate with you how did you legitimately obtain your CDL? Had to be one of these mail order CDLs out of Miami.

When I got my cdl in Jacksonville about a decade ago I was given a piece of paper in English telling me how to log into the computer at DMV and that no translator or assistance would be given to me during the test taking process.

 

Actually he did do this on purpose, he had several chances to stop the truck, he had a chance to hit a runaway truck pit but it just twasn’t a case where he just saw the traffic stopped and couldn’t, so it is all on him.

 

Do stupid things and win stupid prizes. This clown got exactly what he deserves, some of you guys want to coddle a murderer and blame anyone and everyone else. Disgusting. He had many opportunities to ditch that truck, but he didn’t because he was obviously worried about himself only. I hope he makes someone in prison a real nice beach, cause he deserves that.

 

If that were only that simple.
We still need to distinguish between a wrongful act and a criminal act, which it was not.
He is a killer, not a murderer. He did not intend to kill.