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Truck Driver 110 Year Sentence?? Is It Safe To Tow in Colorado?

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#21 ·
Being a former CDL holder and Driver, I can tell you even if the company is at fault as soon as he hit the road he now assumes all liability for the truck, trailer and its load. It is pretty shitty but that is the Law. I drove one time an ATM truck with no jakes, it was scary but I am thankful it was a small tanker that was empty when coming down a grade.
 
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Discussion starter · #22 ·
azrwilkinson said:
Being a former CDL holder and Driver, I can tell you even if the company is at fault as soon as he hit the road he now assumes all liability for the truck, trailer and its load.
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A driver of any vehicle is always primarily liable, but the owner of the vehicle will typically (always?) have secondary liability for damages in (probably?) every state. So if the UPS driver hits someone, both the driver and UPS will be liable if the driver at fault. That's why you want to be careful loaning out your vehicles.

This by the way is also why incorporating a small business doesn't always shield from liability. The stockholder/owner may have been involved in the activity giving rise to liability.

There probably is an exception for this where the vehicle fault is not something the driver could have been aware of. Seattle had one of those "Ride The Ducks" vehicles loose control and cause a rather horrific crash that killed at least one person. It was a design defect of the vehicle, so I doubt the driver was liable. This article indicates liability was shared by the manufacturer and owner.

www.seattletimes.com

King County jury awards $123 million to victims of Ride the Ducks crash

The jury determined that Ride The Ducks International bore 67 to 70 percent of the responsibility for the 2015 crash and Ride The Ducks of Seattle was 30 to 33 percent at fault in the crash that killed five people...
www.seattletimes.com www.seattletimes.com
 
#23 ·
MattFL said:
I drove stick for years, but never a big truck. What makes it so hard to get into any gear once the speed starts to increase, are they not Synchromesh gears and the driver has to rpm match manually, which isn't possible if the engine can't rev that high so it just grinds?
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Truck transmissions do not have synchros. You have to match engine speed to get it to go into gear. That's hard to do as the truck is accelerating, and impossible if the braking speed you want is above the highest fired engine speed (which is often the case).

I know of engines that do their best braking at 2200 rpm, but which no-load fired only up to 1800 rpm.
 
#25 ·
Well, sentencing guidelines set by law dictated that the punishment could be no less than 110 years.
So....that's what 4 counts of vehicular homicide plus other things gets you.
I think you could bitch about the charges but not the sentencing. It's in the law.
Around here it's the sentencing that is more of the problem. That's why we have rapists, burglars, arsonists, and even murderers running the street in sunny California.
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
White016 said:
Well, sentencing guidelines set by law dictated that the punishment could be no less than 110 years.
So....that's what 4 counts of vehicular homicide plus other things gets you.
I think you could bitch about the charges but not the sentencing. It's in the law.
Around here it's the sentencing that is more of the problem. That's why we have rapists, burglars, arsonists, and even murderers running the street in sunny California.
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Exactly the opposite. My first post said: "It may be that Colorado is sort of like Italy, a place to avoid so that you don't have to deal with a crazy criminal justice system. "

If they have a sentencing system where a single auto accident can result in what is effectively a life sentence just because there are multiple victims, that's crazy. As I also said above, I think there should be more consecutive sentences handed out, but where there are multiple instances of criminal activity separated by time. For example, robbing three different banks. But this is almost as if the sentence for bank robbery got extended for each $10,000 the robber got away with.

Do you really want to vacation in a state where a mere accident can result in your spending the rest of your life in prison because of their sentencing guidelines? I'd hate to see what they do if you don't pay a parking meter!
 
#27 ·
Goodspike said:
Exactly the opposite. My first post said: "It may be that Colorado is sort of like Italy, a place to avoid so that you don't have to deal with a crazy criminal justice system. "

If they have a sentencing system where a single auto accident can result in what is effectively a life sentence just because there are multiple victims, that's crazy. As I also said above, I think there should be more consecutive sentences handed out, but where there are multiple instances of criminal activity separated by time. For example, robbing three different banks. But this is almost as if the sentence for bank robbery got extended for each $10,000 the robber got away with.

Do you really want to vacation in a state where a mere accident can result in your spending the rest of your life in prison because of their sentencing guidelines? I'd hate to see what they do if you don't pay a parking meter!
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I get what you mean, but....I don't think it was "just because"
First, we were not on the jury. We don't know everything. What this guy did could have been very deliberate you know? I don't mean deliberately killing four people but what he did and didn't do to the truck and while driving.
I don't think you can compare people's lives to money in this case, although murdered people's families end up with lots of cash sometimes...
Edit: Also, is it safe to tow in Colorado? I'm thinking most very likely if you are safe in the first place.
 
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#28 ·
The other day driving home traffic was backing up, as I got past the issue, it was a trailer that had a heavy bob cat or something of that nature rolled on its side in the middle of the hwy. How the hell does that happen?

Man I am still driving a motorcycle , but things like that and the insane driving habits may stop me from riding the bike. I want to enjoy my retirement when that day comes.

Driving at insane speeds will not get you from point A to B that much faster unless you are going 200 MPH.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Even the new CDL training programs with required instruction hours and documented drive time on a learner's permit suck. Nobody is born a Super Trucker no matter what they think of themselves, but these programs pump out green drivers, many of whom have never driven loaded before.

In the last 5-10 years I've never seen heavy trucks go so fast or follow other vehicles so closely. Newer trucks can keep up with most traffic, no problem, sometimes even on a slight grade. Yeah you'll still have your line of climbers on a mountain pass but they're a lot faster than they used to be. A lot of these green drivers get behind the wheel of an 80,000lb+ rig with an automatic and 600hp, and time is money. Watch them ride the brakes down a mountain pass and go into a corner too hot. They have no idea.
 
#31 ·
I have driven that route many times, I-70 down from the Front Range into Denver. The thing that troubles me he was down on the flat part of I-70 for the better part of 5 to 7 miles and still doing 85 miles an hour. Seriously, no engine braking no down shifting no trying to ease the truck off the road. My theory is he was driving recklessly and came upon stopped traffic and slammed into 28 vehicles at 85 mph. His excuse "My brakes failed". I chalk this up to driver inexperience and driver recklessness.
 
#32 ·
Just saw a discussion on this.

He was speeding down hill.

He lost his brakes.

He had a number of run off ramps that he failed to use.

His English was poor to little.

Yes he screwed up but 110 years is too much. The reason for these sentencing rules was due to liberal judges with too light sentences when it was called for. In this case it back fires.

He should spend some time but when we see them let off premeditated muderers with lighter sentences this needs to be adjusted.
 
#34 ·
White016 said:
Well, sentencing guidelines set by law dictated that the punishment could be no less than 110 years.
So....that's what 4 counts of vehicular homicide plus other things gets you.
I think you could bitch about the charges but not the sentencing. It's in the law.
Around here it's the sentencing that is more of the problem. That's why we have rapists, burglars, arsonists, and even murderers running the street in sunny California.
Click to expand...
And undeath row
 
#35 ·
I’ve been following it. The extreme length of the sentence was a consequence of the state’s minimum sentencing law. The judge said it was not his preference but that he had no discretion. Even the District Attorney opposes the sentence and has asked for it to be reconsidered. I believe it will be reduced one way or another.
 
#36 ·
Goodspike said:
And this article claims he was speeding down the hill, which could be criminal negligence if excessive.
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He was speeding because he could not control his speed on the downgrade. Drivers of heavy trucks use their gears, primarily, to control their speed on a downgrade, supplemented with a Jake brake. I believe he got on the grade in too high a gear and tried to use his brakes to control the speed, then got into neutral trying to shift down but couldn’t get into a low gear because of his speed. Service brakes will not stop a loaded heavy truck on a downgrade. He probably destroyed his brakes trying and was just coasting.

It seems he was not competent to operate a heavy truck in mountainous terrain.
 
#37 ·
Tom S. said:
... What is missing is what was done to the company he worked for and what was their maintenance record? I have read a lot about trucks on the road that are not safe, especially those originating from Mexico. Where's the rest of the story? Did this guy even have a CDL?
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Authoritative sources don’t seem to be reporting this information, but I have read that he did have a license to operate the truck, but that it eas conditional and not valid outside Texas. I don’t know how licensing works for interstate operation of heavy trucks.

I have also read that his company settled civil suits and is now out of business.
 
#38 ·
trikermutha said:
Has anybody been driving the hwys lately. The truck drivers are going faster than some of the cars.
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I mostly drive the freeways on the west coast. My experience is that truckers are better drivers than they were a few decades ago. Oregon has reasonable speed limits for trucks and truckers seem to observe them. My practice on I-5 is to set my cruise control to what the trucks are doing and ride along with them as much as I can.
 
#39 ·
eldee54 said:
Not knowing his training or experience or his command of the english language, learning to drive in Texas, he may not of even been aware of what a runout was for.
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I read that he learned to drive trucks in Florida. In any case, a runaway truck ramp should be understood by a truck driver regardless of language limitations. This case suggests to me that there is inadequate regulation of drivers to ensure that they are competent to operate a heavy truck. Of course an unqualified driver can get in a truck regardless. I don’t know how that can be prevented.
 
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