Notice that the judge was a 28 year veteran of the same police department that pulled the driver over. Just a coincidence????

 

I totally discount and reject ALL the comments about the "liberalness" of the judge. He may be an idiot, but he won the nomination of BOTH parties in his district. That shows fairness and acceptability by the general public.

And WHY is every case always compared to drug dealers and such? Two completely different animals! You say drug dealers are out on bond in a minute, yet... statistics show/prove that our prisons are overcrowded by "first offenders" on low level (no victim) drug POSSESSION charges!

Let me get STAN in here for a minute to REMIND y'all of how dangerous chemical tankers can BE to neighborhoods where YOUR children live. The roads were CLEARLY marked for NO TRUCKS! The road doesn't even LOOK passable for a truck.... let alone a TANKER!

Oh yeah.... he's a WAR VET... so he isn't required to be smart enough to know what all OTHER truckers should know! You don't take a chemical tanker down just ANY county road (let alone one marked NO TRUCKS!)

Do I think he was treated a bit unfairly by the court? YES. But, courts are often the last vessels of individual concern. They deal in volumes and deadlines.

The trucking company is responsible for his routing! HE is responsible for everything we as truckers are supposed to KNOW! The GPS is the tool of the "steeringwheelholder" and the DEVIL himself! Only an IDIOT relies soley on this IMPERFECT medium!!

My new co-driver is a pretty good guy! He's a good "driver" but he ain't no TRUCKER! He couldn't find his ass with both hands and a flashlight across this country without his GPS unit! I call "her" the "bi-t-ch in a box!" She is wrong more often than I take a chit!

You CANNOT be a successful truck driver if you rely completely on a Gps unit to direct you. Might as well hire MORONS to drive the trucks! This guy violated the FIRST order of a trucker! He didn't PLAN his route... KNOW his route... OR obey the signs! He had NO business driving a load of CHEMICALS on American highways.

I'm glad he didn't have to spend Christmas in jail....but, I really DON'T CARE! He deserved it for being a total idiot!

Guys... let me remind you: This is a serious job! Especially when hauling hazardous materials! If it were SO EASY... any idiot (or Mexican) with a "bitch in the box" could do it!

Before you jump all over the judge, let me remind you... this guy was a Pennsylvania NATIVE (you didn't catch that, DID you?) He might have known that route as a shortcut... I don't know. But... the signs are CLEAR! And his responsibilities are CLEAR! And blaming a GPS should NEVER be a reasonable defense in a court of law!

He FRUCKED UP! And he should NEVER haul Hazmat again until he learns how to be a truck driver!

// rant over //

 

ALL the ............. What??

 

C'mon, Stan. You know what I'm saying. Nearly every post was a slam against the so-called "liberal judge." I'd like to take the focus OFF of the judge and put it on the Event!

YOU are my "resident expert" on Hazmat hauling, and I wanted YOUR opinion.

Did THIS "driver" screw up or not?

 

Yes, he screwed up. Does that mean he deserves $12,000 in fines, as well as time in jail? Hell no.

 

There are places here that I have to drive through resedential areas to make my deliveries.... While he should have been paying attention to the signs, the punishment does not fit the crime (IMO)

 

Not the first time PA has been known to have some mighty stiff penalties. Remember the driver that had how many thousands in fines because he was not able to read the street sign where he should have turned in Bucks County (I think) north of Phila.? I uas always very careful about navigating anywhere in PA or NJ. I'd heard horror stories about NJ as well, but I understand that one reg there was overturned before I retired. And, I've been on roads in southwestern PA that were not even enough of a road for a car to drive on. But that was what I had to take to get to the customer. Once, in Washington, the directions took me through a residential area and a flagged down a state trooper to ask him if there was actually an industrial complex at the end of the road... He came back ten minutes later and said there was. So, you really can not tell by the look of the road if it'a a truck route or not. And for some of those roads, GPS doesn't know the difference even if it programmed for trucks.

 

nowhere does it say if signs were posted or not, a friend of mine just got a $1400.00 ticket in Arkansas, the weight limit sign was posted just AFTER you get on the bridge

 

LOL...as a "resident expert"...Yeah....the driver screwed up. He should have had a set of written directions supplied by the company, if he did not already know where the location he was headed to was. Using the GPS is nice. I have a cheap...(free) Garmin nuvii. I use it all the time. BUT.......when it tells me to drive a route that I obviously should not be on.....I keep going....and follow the directions I received either via Qualcomm from the company....Or directly from the customer. Anymore I use it mainly as a street identifier as I drive, without having it programmed for a destination.

The fines and jail time for the driver are a crock of chit, motivated more by the fact that he works for Halliburton I think than what he did.

 

In northern PA 80% of the roads are marked 10tons. Its to keep the water trucks off them for the drill rigs. If your not working for the gas companys most of the time the cops will leave you alone. But then again it does say 10TON. So if you get the wroung cop on a bad day. He can make your life hell.