Truck Drivers Boycotting Colorado

a reply to: Edumakated

I believe the news I watched said this was the minimum sentence on all the charges combined. There were a lot of charges, and minimum sentence on all added up to this many years.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Horrific crash. However, it still does not justify a 110 year sentence.

To be honest, I am not going to sit up here and say I know all the details of the case. I just saw it in passing. However, unless this guy has multiple previous felonies like drunk driving or other egregious violations, I am failing to see why he needs to be buried under the jail.

He claimed the brakes failed? Did they? If he was unlicensed, why isn't the company also being held responsible for hiring? Maybe he shouldn't have been driving.

Even the judge thinks it is a ridiculous sentence. We have murderers and rapist getting 10 year sentences....

a reply to: Edumakated

It’s very easy to get into a situation where your brakes haven’t failed, but they’re not effective. Especially coming down into Denver. We had it happen us one time coming down that stretch. If you know how to deal with it, without having to stop, you can pretty quickly get them back. The driver will say they failed, but by the time they’re inspected after, they’re perfectly fine.

Drivers are held to significantly higher standards than others. There was a case years ago where a truck driver was charged with negligent manslaughter, because he hit and killed a drunk driver doing the wrong way down a ramp the truck was going up. The driver was just over his hours and was about to pull into the truck stop at the top of the ramp. But since he was over hours, it was automatically his fault.

Growing up not to far from there, I have driven over Monteagle TN on Interstate 24. It is dangerous in bad weather. I would not dare be on it in snowy conditions. It is 10% in spots I recall. A mile high and you go to near seal level when you are at the bottom. It is about 30 miles north west of Chattanooga. Still you can miss those runaway truck traps if you are out of control. No brakes is a very scary feeling.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

."TRUCKERS, YOU ARE NOT DOWN YET! USE LOW GEAR."..."STEEP GRADE AHEAD. USE LOW GEAR."

Tennessee has a couple of spots like that. It always makes me nervous, there are off ramps for "runaway" trucks that look equally as scary.

That is silly to do a trucker like that example. He needed a jury trial to redeem himself. I would have said not guilty.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Edumakated

It’s very easy to get into a situation where your brakes haven’t failed, but they’re not effective. Especially coming down into Denver. We had it happen us one time coming down that stretch. If you know how to deal with it, without having to stop, you can pretty quickly get them back. The driver will say they failed, but by the time they’re inspected after, they’re perfectly fine.

Drivers are held to significantly higher standards than others. There was a case years ago where a truck driver was charged with negligent manslaughter, because he hit and killed a drunk driver doing the wrong way down a ramp the truck was going up. The driver was just over his hours and was about to pull into the truck stop at the top of the ramp. But since he was over hours, it was automatically his fault.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Um well maybe. But we have been seeing a lot of loads not getting filled because people just don't want to drive.

a reply to: chris_stibrany

There were issues getting loads filled before any of this started. It’s been made worse, but we had many times when we were asked to pick a crappy load up and get it moving, and they’d swap it onto another truck and get us a better load. Or we’d be asked to deliver it, and they’d put a good reload on us to make up for it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It definitely has been made way worse.

I finally got an empty can returned after like almost 2.5 months. That made me happy.

originally posted by: Justoneman
Growing up not to far from there, I have driven over Monteagle TN on Interstate 24. It is dangerous in bad weather. I would not dare be on it in snowy conditions. It is 10% in spots I recall. A mile high and you go to near seal level when you are at the bottom. It is about 30 miles north west of Chattanooga. Still you can miss those runaway truck traps if you are out of control. No brakes is a very scary feeling.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

."TRUCKERS, YOU ARE NOT DOWN YET! USE LOW GEAR."..."STEEP GRADE AHEAD. USE LOW GEAR."

Tennessee has a couple of spots like that. It always makes me nervous, there are off ramps for "runaway" trucks that look equally as scary.

Coming back from Bristol I screwed up heading to Asheville and got up on a mountain, I was in a 37-foot mobile showroom loaded down, snow and ice, hell I was nervous going up, and coming down was scary as Ive ever been driving and Ive driven for a living most of my adult life, throughout the southeast.

originally posted by: Justoneman
Growing up not to far from there, I have driven over Monteagle TN on Interstate 24. It is dangerous in bad weather. I would not dare be on it in snowy conditions. It is 10% in spots I recall. A mile high and you go to near seal level when you are at the bottom. It is about 30 miles north west of Chattanooga. Still you can miss those runaway truck traps if you are out of control. No brakes is a very scary feeling.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

."TRUCKERS, YOU ARE NOT DOWN YET! USE LOW GEAR."..."STEEP GRADE AHEAD. USE LOW GEAR."

Tennessee has a couple of spots like that. It always makes me nervous, there are off ramps for "runaway" trucks that look equally as scary.

Yeah, driving through that area is pretty hairy at times. Literally just drove through over Thanksgiving. It always amazes me to see someone poking along in front of a semi going down those mountains. All I can think of is Ludacris song... Move B!tch! Get out the way!

a reply to: Edumakated

Dead! 🤣

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

His brakes likely weren't completely out, but hot and suffering fade. I know that area well and I've driven it thousands of times. (I've also driven tractor trailers hauling heavy equipment earlier in my life). There are big flashing signs all over the place coming down that hill saying things like..."TRUCKERS, YOU ARE NOT DOWN YET! USE LOW GEAR."..."STEEP GRADE AHEAD. USE LOW GEAR."

Right at the bottom of the hill the highway curves to the left and traffic backs up right there. I've had to stand on my brakes a few times right there just from a split second of inattention, and that was in a car or pickup. There was no excuse for this guy to be going as fast as he was! The "no brakes" excuse is BS! If he would have been in low gear he wouldn't have even needed his damn brakes!

I live here and agree with this.

----

I think the sentence is excessive. I think the company needs to be held liable too.....they should never have hired him and had him out there driving IMO.

originally posted by: Thenail

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It says he also did not use the runaway truck ramp prior to the accident.

Really wow . I’ve never seen a runaway truck ramp on i70 in denver .

Its not In DENVER...coming down out of the mountains....there are lots of them.

Not sure I understand why people would be sticking up for this particular trucker,

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
The same reason people here stick up for the people that stormed the Capitol. F'n idiots.

The dude was 23 he probably just graduated high school and barely passed a cdl school, probably a cocky inexperienced kid trying to do a job he was under qualified to do. Yeah.

originally posted by: Bigburgh

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I know the exact spot, I've been there a few times. It's the same kind of grade coming out of the pass in the Sierra's towards Reno, i.e. a bad one.

Donner. I-80. That's a bad area for almost any large vehicle.

During winter storms, driving a car can give one white knuckles, friggin black ice can f over any vehicle

a reply to: JAGStorm

After looking into the crash he deserves the sentence. He had people who testified prior to reak failure he was speeding when trucks were limited to 45 mph. He was shown to pass 2 Truck ramps while he claims his breaks had failed. He could have avoided the wreck by driving into the ditch before the crash. He also apparently did not down shift as he plowed into them at over 85 miles per hour. And even at the point, he knew he was going to crash he decides to go through the middle of the cars instead of hitting the guard rails.

You can say he was inexperienced and yes it was an accident but the bottom line is the driver with a CDL is responsible for everyone's safety. And having known several drivers they would have jack-knifed the trailer before plowing into families. Even my uncle when i asked him said he would give his life before plowing 80000 lbs into cars.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
www.newsnationnow.com...

Here is what happened:

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — The driver of a semitrailer in a fiery crash on the Colorado interstate that killed four people in 2019 was sentenced Monday to 110 consecutive years in prison.

The judge said those were the minimum requirements under state sentencing guidelines, but that could change as the sentence is reviewed.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, was driving an 18-wheeler in April 2019 when he crashed into more than two dozen stopped vehicles and four semitrailers on Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colorado.

The aftermath was swift

There is so much more
Here

well wou;dn't life without parole cover it or did the prosecution have to file that way/

i think i know where that is.it'sa bitch of a road. i drove it many times. i lived n indian springs and on the other side of the tunnel.
it's gotta be the same place i'm thinking of. one day going up to the divide? there was a military convoy coming down and when we passed each other, some convoy trucks went over the shoulder and down the hill into the trees! it was in the papers next day or 2. 1 was killed i think. wild. another time a cattle truck jackknifed and flipped and it was a mess!
poor things. beautiful drive tho. winter is scary.