Man sentenced to 110 years for accidental automotive death of 4 people

Discussion in 'Law & Justice' started by kazenatsu, Dec 17, 2021.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A man was sentenced to 110 years of prison (which would effectively be life in prison) for the accidental death of four people.

    The man was the driver of a large truck. At one point the brakes on the truck stopped working, and the truck began rolling downhill out of control.
    The man could have been able to steer the truck onto a ramp feature built into the road for runaway trucks, that was designed for this sort of situation, but that did not happen.

    Instead the truck passed the turnoff for the runaway truck ramp, and then crashed into several cars.

    This ended up causing a large fire. The highway was shut down in both directions for about 24 hours. Those killed were a 24-year-old Hispanic man, and three other men over the age of 60. Several others were injured.

    The man's name is Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, the incident happened in Colorado in April 2019.

    Several people are petitioning the governor to grant clemency, to greatly reduce the prison sentence.
    An appeal is also planned.

    It is arguable how responsible this man really is for those deaths.

    Apparently the man is being blamed for not steering the out of control truck onto the runaway truck ramp. Why that did not happen, we might never know for sure. It could have just been an error during an unexpected emergency situation.

    The man claimed he tried his best to avoid the vehicles stopped on the road, but could not avoid them all.

    Investigators said no alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash.

    Aguilera-Mederos was convicted of 27 counts, including vehicular homicide. During sentencing, the judge acknowledged that Aguilera-Mederos did not intend to harm anyone. But under guidelines set by the law, his sentence could be no less than 110 years.

    "I accept and respect what the defendant has said [...] but he made a series of terrible decisions - reckless decisions," the judge said.


    A Colorado truck driver was sentenced to 110 years for a deadly crash. Over 3 million people have signed a petition asking for clemency. - CBS News, Michael Roppolo, December 17, 2021
     
  2. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    The judge in the case said if he had any discretion, he wouldn't sentence him to that long but he did not. He more or less told the defendant to challenge the laws that forced the sentence on appeal.
     
  3. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The laws do not really draw adequate distinction between different levels of responsibility that exist for crimes.

    This man could be seen as a little bit responsible for what happened, but (arguably) not in a way where he should face the punishment for what happened.

    There is a wide spectrum of different degrees of "recklessness". It is a wide spectrum. Most normal people are reckless is small ways every year that could end up resulting in someone dying, but is extremely unlikely to. So the line between totally accidental and an accident obviously caused by recklessness is not always so clear.
    (An example: If I leave a hose running in the front lawn, and I forget about it, and then the water overflows onto the sidewalk and then freezes due to the cold weather, and then an elderly person who is walking along slips on that ice and dies from the fall, does that mean I am responsible?
    Another example: How about if I stick a little metal garden shovel into one of several bales of hay I own, then forget about the little garden shovel, then sell a stack of the bales of hay to a gun target range. Someone at the range shoots at the bale of hay, but the bullet hits the little garden shovel, ricochets off the hard metal, and hits someone. Am I responsible for that? The point being this isn't an entirely "black and white" thing)

    Expecting a man to perfectly compensate and take measures during an emergency to avert disaster is not always going to be reasonable.

    This situation was made more complicated due to this driver having choice over this disaster, which direction he steered and which specific cars he hit, even though at the point there was no option to avoid crashing into any cars.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2021
  4. Capt Nice

    Capt Nice Well-Known Member

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    Who owned the truck? If it was his truck I could see a bit more responsibility on him because of inadequate maintenance but much less if it were owned by his employer or someone else.
     
  5. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    I didn't see any detailed article on the maintenance of the truck. If it was his truck and he knew it was in need of repair and he was still driving at 85 then maybe I could see a harsher sentence. As is, I don't know. I am just not a fan of mandatory minimum sentences, especially ones that are apparently this harsh.
     
  6. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So if he didn't change out the breaks when he probably should have, if he was trying to get some more use out of them and trying to save money, then he should be held fully responsible for the disaster?

    How about people who head out on an icy road when they know conditions are hazardous and they probably should not be going out?
    Should they be held fully responsible too and criminally prosecuted if the road conditions cause their car to slide out of control and they get into a car crash?
     
  7. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    Yes and yes.
     
  8. Pants

    Pants Well-Known Member

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    That was my first question - what was the servicing record of this truck? If someone drives a heavy truck (I'm assuming it was a working vehicle) for a living, they are responsible for keeping it maintained. If he knew the brakes were dodgy, driving it was pure recklessness. And in this case, it resulted in death. As for the 110 year sentence, I think its rather harsh, but I do hold him responsible if all of the above was part of the evidence.
     
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  9. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    OK, some things that should be considered in this matter. Things I noticed were not mentioned in any of these articles (and I looked at many)

    There is dashcam footage of him already out of control and passing a runaway truck ramp. That there shows it was not just an "accident", but a willful act. He had a chance to resolve this with no loss of life, and at most a fine for his company for the use of the ramp. Yes, the state of Colorado does asses a fine of $2,500 for using a ramp. Also, no mention of his log books. How long was he on the road? When was his last stop, and did he perform his required pre-trip maintenance on his vehicle?

    The fact that he purposefully did not use the ramp in my mind takes this from "simple accident" to "willful homicide" He could have done many things prior to this "accident". Use the ramp, purposefully drive into the embankment at the underpass just prior to the collision. Also, not a single mention of his driving record. Was this a one time thing, or does he have a record of DOT violations?

    I am licensed to drive vehicles even bigger than he was driving, and my wife is a long distance truck driver. And my first question after I heard of this last year was those things. And I am amazed that none of that is mentioned in a single article that I could find. Those to me are all very important considerations, but the most important is ultimately why he passed the runaway truck ramp.

    Sounds to me like he killed 4 people simply because he did not want to pay $2,500. And for that, he gets no pity from me and he should rot in jail for life.
     
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  10. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    And even more. In most cases where you have a steep downgrade, there is a mandatory pull-out for trucks to inspect their brakes. And most drivers who do so will record this in their log for obvious reasons just in case something like this happens. Was there such a pull-out, did he use it, and did he actually inspect his brakes?

    And ultimately why did he pass the runaway truck ramp? It is actually not unheard of for drivers to pass them by, they do not want to pay the fines and they plan on stopping at the bottom of the hill so they can either let the brakes cool, fix the problem, or call for a tow. To me, this sounds willful as there is no excuse to pass the ramp other than he did not want to pay a fine. This is no different than a guy running from the cops and slamming into traffic and killing 4 people.
     
  11. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Yes and yes.

    Truck drivers (like pilots, bus drivers, etc) are responsible for the vehicles they operate. If maintenance is not done, they are the ones held responsible as that is their job. As it should be, and this is why.

    Failure to do so can cost lives.
     
  12. Pants

    Pants Well-Known Member

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    A lifetime ago, a friend's father was driving a heavy construction truck and encountered a situation which would have meant hitting a school bus, or a tree. He chose the tree. I couldn't help but think of him when I read this story. While the news wanted to paint him as a hero, his family wanted none of it. They maintained that anyone would have done the same in his position. But, obviously not...
     
  13. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Sounds harsh, and unmerciful.

    I bet there is a chance anyone of us could accidentally cause a terrible accident costing lives. I guess you believe those people (who lose out on luck of the draw) should have to pay for it and suffer along with the accidental victims.

    I know there are many who think like you. Your mentality is not alone.
    But I personally find that mentality outrageous and unjust, as do many others.

    So society is divided on this, but society does not think about these issues before they happen.

    Failing to do what others consider to be adequate maintenance on your vehicle is not the same thing as getting drunk and driving on the road, or shooting into the outside wall of a building that might be filled with people. It is a stretch to say that this man was "responsible", in my opinion.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2021
  14. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A regular car has a tiny chance of killing people too, if it is not adequately maintained.

    You're trying to hold truck drivers to an infinitely higher standard because truck drivers are a minority in the population and you do not see it as "normal", therefore if they do not do everything perfectly and something goes wrong, you think they should get life on prison.

    How about if a mother tries hard and feeds her baby a decent diet, but it was not quite good enough, and the baby accidentally dies as a result, we put her in prison for life too? (It technically was her fault) See how ridiculous and absurd and harsh that sounds?
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2021
  15. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Failing to do so on a big rig is worse, and as irresponsible as drunk driving. That is why there are laws specifically for that. And he passed a runaway truck trap purposefully. Once again, gross negligence. WHich resulted in the deaths of four people.

    Sorry, no pity. He made his choices, now he gets to live with them.
     
  16. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    I hold them to a higher standard because I have done that, and my wife still is. It is not like I am talking blindly here, just the fact that I brought up things like the fines for using a truck ramp, some of the log book requirements, and maintenance should show I know more than a bit about what I am saying.

    And as is often the case, those who actually do a job tend to be harder on those that fail at it than an outsider does.

    Truck drivers are held to a higher standard simply because they can kill many people when something goes wrong. This here being a classic example.
     
  17. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Car drivers could accidentally kill many people too, but most people would not hold them to that same high standard, since the majority of people are car drivers and it is seen as very "normal".

    I think we need to more closely examine the "logic" that is at play here.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2021
  18. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Most car drivers do not cause 28 car pileups. Their vehicle weights around 1 ton, not over 40 tons.
     
  19. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This guy's sentence was excessive. They should have mercy. He did not do anything that was too reckless.
     
  20. roorooroo

    roorooroo Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I doubt that this was some freak accident failure of the brakes. Most likely was not a maintenance issue either. Brake failure of large trucks in the mountains is a well-known phenomenon. If the brakes are used too much, they overheat and fail (engine braking should be used when possible to mitigate the possibility). All professional drivers should be aware of this and be prepared for it. The reason for the run-away truck ramps is precisely because the brake failure phenomenon is common. No sympathy from me for the driver... he disregarded common safety practices when faced with a well-known issue. And if he didn't understand the dangers of big rigs in the mountains, and he did not understand how to use engine braking, then he should not have been driving in the first place.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fade

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_truck_ramp

    https://www.ttnews.com/articles/long-downhill-grades-require-engine-braking-experts-say

    https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15127769/runaway-truck-ramps-explained-feature/

    https://www.trucknews.com/features/how-to-safely-descend-mountain-grades/

    https://www.yourmechanic.com/question/how-does-engine-braking-work
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2021
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  21. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    He purposefully passed an emergency truck stop, and killed 4 people in a 26 car pileup with a 40 ton vehicle. It is not excessive, he deserves what he got.

    Why is it that you seem to scream about anything somebody is convicted of being "excessive"? You know, it rather kills any credibility when you try to say that every time somebody violates the law the reaction or punishment is excessive.
     
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  22. Curious Always

    Curious Always Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We will see. If he had an opportunity to use the runaway truck ramps in the mountains, and didn’t, that is negligent.
     
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  23. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    For context, the quality of our truck drivers here in the US has been tanking over the past decade with more and more lax regulation of CDL lisencing. Some say its because migrant truckers were having difficulty passing the CDL requirements and so they are being laxxed. Not a CDL holder myself, just passing along what I've heard. And witnessed. It does semm to me, as someone who drives a lot for work, the truckers are getting kinda crappy...
     
  24. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    In other words, he should have used his Jake Brake. And yes, I agree.

    There are many reasons why prior to a large downhill segment there is a pullout and signs asking for trucks to inspect their brakes. One reason is so they will do exactly that. Overheated brakes have a very distinct smell, and is one of the things they are to check for. In addition to proper inflation and possible separation starting by thumping the tires. And this 5-10 minute stop also gives the brakes a chance to cool down before the downhill part.
     
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  25. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Oh, he did. There is dashcam video from another driver that shows him blowing past one at 85 mph just a few miles before the accident.

    That to me is the single greatest condemnation. He had the chance to stop his vehicle safely, and purposefully did not take it. The dashcam footage was a key part of prosecutions case, but I have not been able to find it now as all searches are absolutely flooded with how this is an "injustice".

    I bet if instead of a truck he had shot 30 people with an AR and killed 4 then people would be screaming for his head instead.
     

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