Commenting on the case and not the judge. I do not believe that the crash was intentional. I also believe that the schooling that the driver of the truck got was insufficient for the level of responsibility that was dropped on him. Most driving schools here do not allow students to practice with loaded rigs. It's a big difference stopping a loaded rig as compared to stopping an empty one.
I'm not saying that things should have been done different, but I'm of the opinion that the truck driver is not fully at fault here. I'd say that would be especially true if he was inadequately prepared for the job he was doing.
When I started driving flat bed truck, the company I was working for sent someone with me to teach me on a designated multi stop run with lots of strapping, unstrapping, and restrapping, and I had someone with me teaching me how to do things for 2 months before they let me on the road myself.
I already had several years of experience driving a truck at that point. So, how can a guy who just got out of the kind of school that uses the minimum to get people through do a good job, or be prepared??
I don't think that everything should fall squarely on the driver of the truck. And I bet he feels awful for what happened. I mean, he just pled guilty. I haven't kept up with the case, but I haven't heard of him trying to justify anything.
I'm not saying that him not knowing will bring the dead back to life, or restore the injured. But in my mind, there's no justice in a giant punishment being given to someone who didn't know better either. Where is that balanced??
Even in the Bible, there's something that says that death by accent not brought on by negligence should have mercy. I believe the example was an ax that breaks and kills someone else with no warning it would happen.
These person who killed the other was to go to a city of refuge for 7 years.
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