In the old days they were probably paid better.
That might be true, but way more than half are better than average. Just ask a bunch of drivers if they are better, average, or worse.
Like the children of Lake Woebegone, ALL drivers think they are above average. This doesn't make it so.
I've followed this in the local media. This driver made multiple bad decisions. The runaway on the non-standard Interstate segment might have not resulted in such a big disaster had he not smashed into another accident scene.
Yikes! Thanks for the links and background.
Colorado state laws. He took four lives and got what he deserved.
I remember the day this happened. What an horrific mess. He was eastbound with a flatbed load of mostly 2x4 lumber from Vail Pass into west Denver. Claims his brakes failed (not uncommon in that area) but he failed to use (if remember correctly) four emergency run-off ramps. I have never driving that area without seeing a couple of tractor-trailers buried in the gravel on a couple the ramps. Drivers had video of his swerving lane to lane on the way down. When the crash occurred the lumber was scattered for a couple hundred feet on and around multiple vehicles both vehicles he crashed into and others in traffic. A huge fireball erupted and with the wood engulfed I think is was like 13-15 vehicles. Also damaged an overpass above the accident scene. Luckily most of the other vehicle occupants were able to escape. But four lost their lives. Under Colorado law since there were deaths due to his willful negligence maximum sentences are mandatory for the specific charge and run consecutive not concurrent. I think he was changed with 21 counts of various infractions and convicted on 20 of them. After passing 4 maybe 3 run-off ramps he pretty much got what he deserved.
This thread is about truck drivers who are paid to drive, not about our weak licensing system for ordinary drivers and their inability to drive. That has nothing to do with truckers who are supposed to be held to a higher standard because their big rigs can be far more dangerous (and can carry large hazardous cargoes) . Moreover, they are taking over more and more of what railroads used to do (with even MUCH higher requirements) with, IMHO, less trained and worse driving habits than they used to have years ago when most of them set the standard for good driving and were referred to as Knights of the Road instead of Nightmares of the Road.
Back in the early 1960's we were so annoyed by an overly aggressive trucker on the New Jersey Turnpike that my father reported him to the toll-taker when we exited. (No cellphones back then!) More recently, I think the issue of whether a trucker might be a bad driver or not depends on who they work for. The big companies have their trucked all hooked up to the electronic leash of GPS and such, take interest in how their drivers drive, and now have the technology to monitor them. Some of the independent owner-operators don't have this and may take on too much work that gives them stressful deadlines. I was pretty impressed that in Texas, of all places, most of the big rigs actually drove below the speed limit. Just shows you we have myths about people and places that aren't true.
They might also want to check out what other states have these kinds of inflexible sentencing laws. They were quite popular in the 1990s, as I recall.
