Quote:
Originally Posted by Ped
I was leaning toward thinking that prison might not be the right place for him. As others have said, he made a mistake, but it's a mistake that countless people make all the time; most of the time, results are okay, and then something tragic happens.
But then I read the victim impact statements, particularly that from the Josephs, and I've rethought it. Yes, he made a mistake, but whether he deliberately blew the sign or just missed it (although I donn't understand how), he is a professionally trained driver that should know better.
Yes, even professionals make mistakes. But whatever he did resulted in the lives of 13 people, and the the families of the 16 that died, forever being altered, and not in a good way. He will undoubtedly be tortured by that for the rest of his life, and he does seem genuinely remorseful.
But still his actions resulted in tragic death and injury. No malice on his part, but there's not necessarily any malice in a slightly impaired person who thinks they are okay to drive and kills someone, and we expect that person to be punished. Obviously driving impaired is more a serious infraction, than blowing a stop sign, but the results can be the same.
He is already punished, and will be for the rest of his life. But that doesn't mean that legally he shouldn't be.
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Driving extremely tired because you've been driving over the 14 hours a day for many days and not taking mandatory days off for rest can be MUCH WORSE then driving slightly impaired. Had someone done this with booze in their system they would "be the devil", "throw the book at them" etc etc this guy is driving when he shouldn't be, because he's been driving who knows how many hours in the past week, his brain and reflexes ar working at a snails pace but "its human error" & "he doesn't deserve prison" etc etc etc ummm yes he does he took on the responsibility of a job driving a huge truck that can Obviously kill a lot of people and in 1 month had SEVENTY VIOLATIONS!!!! 70!!!! They are asking for 10 years. So if he gets the 10 years he'll be out in 5 maybe even 4.
Sure he plead guilty and takes responsibility but this was also a choice of his for HIS best interests as well. You don't think him and his lawyer didn't talk about this and say "it will make you look good", "judges like defendants taking responsibility" etc etc etc he's also saying the "right things" in hopes he gets a lighter sentence, don't kid yurself that he isn't.