The Verdict Is In……. 110 Years Concurrent Life Sentences

That runaway ramp on Mount Vernon that he passed has been used 9 times since 2016 per the CDOT. It is in the video that I linked.

He failed to go down a runaway truck ramp that went downhill. I might decide against using such a ramp myself. It looks like a suicide ramp. He didn't fail to go down it because he couldn't read English. He made a fast judgment, and it ended up being the wrong one.

If looks like it's going downhill, and that's your only option to get stopped, you d@mn well better take it or face the consequences like he has to.

When I first started in 88, three weeks in, I smoked my brakes and bought an escape ramp on Donner. I hit it doing 60+ mph. It was not an uphill one at that time and still isn't. The gravel was thick...it buried the truck up to the axles. It took the tow driver (in a small car hauler tow truck) 2 hours to winch out my truck. Lesson learned on using a jake brake and going down mountains a lot slower.

Laura

It's not just the ramp. He did everything wrong. He wasn't in the right gear, he stopped to check his smoking brakes and decided to keep going and having been on that route before, he should've been more aware of it. I'm remembering a 7% downgrade that long because it's not something you forget.

This wasn't an accident, it was negligence. I'm not signing a petition for clemency because if it were my family, I'd be ****ed. It's not my family and I'm ****ed.. Idiots like this this make us all look bad and he should be made an example of.

We all see people doing stupid stuff on the road. Hopefully, this serves as an eyeopener to things a little more seriously.

So much misinformation regarding this. Pretty simple if you watched the trial at all. Actually listened to Brockler discussing some of this on 630 khow.

Driver had 37 counts, judge gave the minimum sentence on all counts, total was reduced to 12 charges.

Driver and company showed reckless disregard for human life. Company last reported to have closed. Brockler wanted to prosecute company, virtually unable to. No pass trough of liabilities to owners other than safety violation.

The much much larger threat to our industry is what has happened to the construction industry.... small companies hire cheap illegal labor that are unskilled at substandard rates. This drives the bid prices lower and lower. The large homebuilders and financers win, and are generally safe from liability as the contractors are 2nd and 3rd tier subs.

The result is that in order to compete with unscrupulous companies, the wages stagnate and drop industry wide and the contract prices drop industry wide.

The only thing preventing this from happening in trucking is that A) shoddy work here is fatal. And B) regulations and documentation being vigorously enforced prevents a large percentage of illegal labor from being used.

The driver had overstayed his visa, was illegal and the company obviously didn't enforce the English Competency Test, required for a CDL. I haven't seen what his pay rate was, but I would bet that it's substantially lower than industry standard. I do know that Brockler had raised questions about the company paying low wages.

Laura/IDMtnGal,

I watched a bunch of videos of trucks going into escape ramps, and now that I know how they work, I'd definitely go down one, even if it went down hill. However, I may not have made the right decision if I didn't look into it before hand. Infact, when I was in truck driving school, my classroom teacher shared a story about how he lost his brakes, and he didn't use an escape ramp. He actually thought they were quite dangerous to use.

Also, didn't your truck require repair after using the escape ramp? It looks like they get beat up... I suspect it totally screws up wheel alignment at the very least.

Banks,

I don't disagree that he made a series of poor choices. I just don't think he deserves a sentence that's more than what most murderers get. I also don't see why we should waste our tax payer money to keep someone locked up for life that isn't dangerous to us. I say let him earn money and take it from him to pay the victim's families back.

Banks,

I don't disagree that he made a series of poor choices. I just don't think he deserves a sentence that's more than what most murderers get. I also don't see why we should waste our tax payer money to keep someone locked up for life that isn't dangerous to us. I say let him earn money and take it from him to pay the victim's families back.

How much is 4 lives worth? What dollar amount do you think is fair? You don't think that a person's poor decisions that costs someone else the ultimate price, shouldn't be imprisoned? There's a difference between an accident and negligence. He decided to put people's lives in danger because stopping would cost him, maybe 30 dollars. Maybe giving the families those 30 dollars will make things right. He loses the 30 dollars and everything is even.

You're not understanding the seriousness of this and it's probably because you're not out there. There are guys like this running all over the interstates. Poorly trained making bad decisions and that effects everybody. If this guy got off light, what message does that send? What happens when it's somebody you love? I don't want to be worried for my life if I have to pull over because of mechanical issues and I don't want the school bus my kid is on to get rammed into by a truck going 85 (possibly more) MPH because somebody is too stupid to know that smoking brakes means stop and if it's too late, take the ramp..I definitely don't want his eyes closed when he collides leaving it all to fate. He deserves what he got. There is no empathy here.

Laura/IDMtnGal,

I watched a bunch of videos of trucks going into escape ramps, and now that I know how they work, I'd definitely go down one, even if it went down hill. However, I may not have made the right decision if I didn't look into it before hand. Infact, when I was in truck driving school, my classroom teacher shared a story about how he lost his brakes, and he didn't use an escape ramp. He actually thought they were quite dangerous to use.

Also, didn't your truck require repair after using the escape ramp? It looks like they get beat up... I suspect it totally screws up wheel alignment at the very least.

Taking a preventable and causing a few thousand in damages or killing people and getting 110 years. Decisions decisions.

Your classroom teacher shouldn't be teaching if that's the advice they're giving. It's foolish to say the least.

Laura/IDMtnGal,

Also, didn't your truck require repair after using the escape ramp? It looks like they get beat up... I suspect it totally screws up wheel alignment at the very least.

No, it sucked the truck in straight, nice and smooth. It was fine the shop said. The only ding was to my wallet for the winch out.

Laura

Totally agree Banks!

As far as I’m concerned he is a murderer. He knew he was in the wrong, otherwise he would not have tried to run to escape.

Banks is right Chris... you have no clue what you are advocating here. It’s far too easy to get a CDL... and this kind of crap puts an exclamation point on that.

What is a fair sentence Chris? 10 years? 20? You assume hypothetically he’d be employable once he got out. He’d possibly be sucking off the government for the rest of his life.

Tired of the trending “free pass” attitude in this country.

Banks,

I don't disagree that he made a series of poor choices. I just don't think he deserves a sentence that's more than what most murderers get. I also don't see why we should waste our tax payer money to keep someone locked up for life that isn't dangerous to us. I say let him earn money and take it from him to pay the victim's families back.

How much is 4 lives worth? What dollar amount do you think is fair? You don't think that a person's poor decisions that costs someone else the ultimate price, shouldn't be imprisoned? There's a difference between an accident and negligence. He decided to put people's lives in danger because stopping would cost him, maybe 30 dollars. Maybe giving the families those 30 dollars will make things right. He loses the 30 dollars and everything is even.

You're not understanding the seriousness of this and it's probably because you're not out there. There are guys like this running all over the interstates. Poorly trained making bad decisions and that effects everybody. If this guy got off light, what message does that send? What happens when it's somebody you love? I don't want to be worried for my life if I have to pull over because of mechanical issues and I don't want the school bus my kid is on to get rammed into by a truck going 85 (possibly more) MPH because somebody is too stupid to know that smoking brakes means stop and if it's too late, take the ramp..I definitely don't want his eyes closed when he collides leaving it all to fate. He deserves what he got. There is no empathy here.