truck driver 110 year sentence reduced to 10
if he wasnt qualified he shoulsnt have been driving
Too many people are being put into the seat with little to no proper training in the SAFE operation of a tractor trailer. The result is that far too often someone dies and the driver is vilified. The problem lies with the company that is not making sure the drivers are properly trained and experienced. I have been a professional driver for over 30 years, the majority of them accident free, with a couple of minor fender benders resulting in a few hundred dollars in damage. I had the benefit of having very in depth and thorough training. It was a 3 month course combining classroom theory, state of the art simulators, and plenty of seat time in a controlled environment. There is a shortage of skilled, qualified people in this industry because it is more about the $$ than the lives and safety of everyone on the road and the freight companies are just looking to make sure that the products get moved from point A to point B as fast as possible. I feel really bad for the driver, it's his face that will always be associated with the loss of life that resulted from this incident.
We had a similar instance here a couple years ago where an inexperienced driver, on his first trip alone, missed a stop sign and wiped out a bus loaded with a junior hockey team. 16 people dead, several others crippled for life. The driver was sentenced to prison and the company that employed him was shut down and fined, but reopened under a different name.
