Driver in deadly motor home crash was teen with restricted license!!!

Could have been the only driver available. If the rest had been drinking.
Alot of alcohol involved in most racing events.

 

Yes this was a terrible wreck. This wreck was only 7 miles from my home, the Tequa creek bridge on I-35. At night no one is going to see a vehicle laying down there.

 

Very tragic. From reading the comments, he had a combined weight of 41,000 lbs. The kid was driving illegally. With all he faces with grieving and guilt, the DOT will probably prosecute him if he survives. Not good at all. My guess is a steer tire blowout and he panicked and hit the brakes and lost control.

 

If the vehicle was a recreational vehicle, then no, he was not driving illegally. If Minnesota is anything like Illinois, you can drive an RV (or even a large rental truck) with a regular car license...even at 17....and even though that class "D" license is only good up to 16K# vehicles (we have a class "C" which covers 16K-26K#....and ANY trailer over 10K# requires an "A", no matter what is pulling it), they don't require that "heavier" license for rental trucks or RV's.

However, it COULD be argued that if he was "racing"....if any prize money was awarded or could have been awarded if he had won, then it was not a "recreational" trip and therefore improperly tagged. Had the vehicle been properly tagged, I doubt ANYONE inside would have been "legal" to have been driving it.

Either way, though, it's a sad day for that family....lost a LOT of people.

 

There was a local article on it as well already last week.

Lot of unhappy people in power over this already....

Expect to see some changes in the licensing system to come from it. At least for Minnesota.

 

Hell, a lot of farm kids have been handling rigs that size (or larger) for years before they turn 17....

...I've seen 5 year old kids who had to sit on the front edge of the seat & still could barely reach the pedals driving F350/gooseneck combinations through fields while hay bales are being picked up & stacked. By the time they are 17, they have more "experience" behind the wheel of combination vehicles than probably 99% of the CDL mill graduates.

 

they mention a trailer and people IN the trailer. isn't that simply illegal period?

 

I live in farming area and see that all the time.. kids are smaller than the steering wheel..

 

He had a Minnesota provisional license which states you can only have 3 people under the age of 20 in a vehicle. He had 12 people under the age of 20, two people out of 18 were wearing seat belts and they were pulling people in a trailer. No charges are expected to be filed and the mother calls her son a hero? What a bunch of garbage.