Truck driver charged with manslaughter while parked on entrance ramp?
 

I have not posted here in a while but this story might make you think twice before you stop on an entrance ramp.

I did not think if you were pulled over on an entrance ramp and a car crashes into you, you could face manslaughter charges.


1 dead in car-semi crash

HARMONY TWP., Clark County — A Columbus man was killed Sunday, March 21, when the vehicle he was driving struck the back of a semi-tractor trailer on Interstate 70 near Harmony.

Thomas Callaway, 39, was entering the eastbound ramp onto the highway from U.S. 40, near mile-marker 62, when his car ran into the back of the semi, which was stopped on the entrance ramp, said Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Vee Witcher Jr.

The driver of the semi, Senad Basic, 49, of Vermont told troopers he had been traveling eastbound on I-70 when he struck a bird.

He said he pulled over onto the entrance ramp to check for damage to his truck.

As Callaway’s vehicle merged onto the highway, it struck the back of the semi and burst into flames. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Basic, who was not injured, was cited for prohibitions from parking on highways and vehicular manslaughter.

He voluntarily submitted to both blood and urine samples with results pending.

The accident is still under investigation.

By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer

What a crockof shizt, another case of "it's somebody else's fault"

BTW Who is John Gault

Young Hawk! Where have you been hiding?? Are you still in that LTC truck??

The short answer is, any cop at anytime can charge you with any crime for any reason and any cop that subscribes to that logic won't be a cop for long.

As far as Senad is concerned, if the cop's right and a man died because Senad was breaking the law, namely "parking on highways", there is a plausible connection. Causing an accident resulting in death isn't in and of itself a crime. Driving under the inluence (breaking the law) and causing an accident resulting in death is a crime. You see the difference? There really isn't enough info in the article for me to form an opinion.

Exactly CD, the article doesn't give a lot of detail, probably because the police haven't released anymore than what you see in the article. Who's to say the truck wasn't sitting there parked for several hours while the driver caught some shut eye and he used the excuse that he had just stopped because he hit a bird and was checking damage? It doesn't say if damage or evidence of a bird strike was or was not found.

I was thinking more along the lines of whether or not it was dark and if he was on the shoulder. If he (Senad) was right of the fog line, I'd say the cop is a little trigger happy. The shoulder is there for emergencies and if Senad's story is legit, it's too bad for Thom. If Senad was all or partially in the roadway, Thom's heirs will, one day, find millions of ways to help ease the pain of their loss.

Take a look at the ramp . .

harmony township, oh - Google Maps

The only way to get on 70 EB is via the nuclear accelerator. Thom and anyone else would be blind to what lies ahead. If I were the cop and considering the possibility that Thom may share some responsibility, I would not have added to the trauma Senad must have been feeling. Both charges or any charges could just as well have been filed at a later time.

I've never understood why anyone would park on the side of the road. I understand you run out of hours, but surely they will give ya some slack for trying to find a good place to park. Every so often, I'll come up on somebody that's parked on a wide spot on the side of the road. What if someone would be coming along and half asleep, and nail that truck? I think it's dangerous when drivers park on the side of the road. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

Hello Orangetxguy....Yes I am. I was just in Orange, Tx not too long ago. I am still yanking my tank:)

Jack, we had several crashes a couple years ago here because of trucks parked on the shoulder of the Interstate itself. The one, it was 2 trucks pulled over and both drivers tried to BS the cops. Their logs told a different story and they got charged for the incident instead of the trucker that hit them. Logs showed they were out of hours and were asleep, one of them finally fessed up to the truth.

Its always been my thought if you are parked on the side of the road and someone hits you it should be their fault!! Why was that person driving fast enough to get killed on the shoulder of the road??? Why should we always make someone else responsible for what we do?
In the old days we slept on the side of the road, do I do it now, NO! Reason being I have to take the blame for an idiot killing themselves because they cant stay in the lane on the hwy...lol
The shoulder of the road is for emergency stopping, and if someone hits you there its their own fault!!! Let them DIE!!!
Lets say a truck driver is on the shoulder of the road for some reason, and another truck driver runs into the back of him, hell the cops would be chasing their tails trying to blame someone, there both drivers so how would they make this one sound good for the media...lol...lol

This brings up an interesting point. You can not read or send messages over the Quallcom while the truck is moving. So, in order to communicate with dispatch, you pull over onto the shoulder of the road. While you're reading the message marked "URGENT", you get rear-ended.

Now, what happens???

Yeah? Was ya jest passin thru...or did you go on out to Sabine River Works? (aka; DuPont)

Drivers get blamed for everything it seems :(

We are supposed to possess 'Precognition'...that way we could see everything

coming and prevent it in advance.

I've always figured that if I rear-end somebody, it would be my fault, which makes sense. If someone is sitting on the side of the road, whether they are sleeping, or outside walking the dog, and someone rear-ends that truck, you would think the one that rear-ended the parked truck would be at fault. Who knows...they change so much up these days, you can't keep up. :lol:

It's a judgement call for the cops Jack. If your there for a legit reason and you get hit, I doubt they will charge you. If your brokedown, you can't help it and if someone hits you it should be there fault as long as you got the triangles out. Now if your sitting there sleeping on the shoulder(in VA that is illegal) and you get hit, your getting charged not the person who hit you unless they were doing something illegal themselves.

Have you ever read a trial transcript? They tend to be long, disjointed, complex and boring. To their credit, the Louisiana Supreme Court manages to keep their's fairly clear and concise. This is a relatively easy read if you choose to undertake it.

http://www.plol.org/Pages/Secure/Doc...d&l=Cases&rp=4

To register, you'll need to provide a working email and create a password. I've been signed up here for at least 2 years and have never received any spam from them.

The short version of the story is, a USA Truck with a history of electrical problems broke down on an unlit stretch of I-10 but the driver did manage to get it to the shoulder. Nothing was working, not even the Qualcomm. He set out 2 triangles and decided to call it a night. 2-3 hours later, at around 0330, a sober 20 year old guy wandered off the roadway and drove under the USA truck, killing him, probably instantly. For at least a short while, the USA driver tried to flag down help, gave up and went back to bed . . yes . . with the dead or dying man glued to his tandems.

The case goes to trial, USA and it's driver are found to be 25% responsible and the (snoozing?) 20 year old is 75%. Combined, USA and driver would owe the guy's parents $37,500. USA should have written the check and walked away. Instead, USA and driver appeal thinking they should have been found to have 0% responsibility.

Bad move. The appeals court reversed responsibility to 75% USA and driver with 25% to the dead guy and upped the award to $500, 000! USA walked in owing $37,500 and walked out owing $400,000, plus costs for both sides!

In addition to this case, the transcript gives a quick review of 5 or 6 other cases to explain how this court came to it's conclusion for this case. Read them and learn. The bottom line is that the shoulder is not relief parking for shoddy equipment. It's there to accommodate weaving drivers and short term breakdowns. I think Senad is going to be OK as long as he didn't stop in the roadway.

I would agree that if you are on the side of the road, sleeping...and someone nails ya, it should be on you. At the same time, the (other) driver should have been more aware/alert. I'm sure it is very hard to call in that situation.

Ok, after seeing this video of the scene I can understand why the truck driver may be in trouble. The video below may clear things up.

The semi was not on the shoulder, I was thinking he was parked on the shoulder near the top of the ramp like you often see semi's parked.

Victim Identified In I-70 Semi, Car Crash - News Story - WHIO Dayton

Where he stopped, he SHOULD be charged. He didn't even try getting as close to the barrier as he could. All that for a small bird??? It'd be different if he hit something a bit larger, say a black bear or a moose.

I've hit a turkey in the windshield that left a depression you could cradle a basketball in. But I'd hit small birds all the time. Even hit an owl once with no damage to the truck. Don't know what a turkey would do to the fiberglass but you don't want one in the windshield.

And, when I pulled off, it was on the edge of a ramp. He didn't have any room to pull off there. Not enough room between traveled lane and the barrier.

A turkey definitely wouldn't be considered as a small bird.

You don't want to hit an owl. I nailed one, one night. It hit my mirror, and shattered the front cover on the mirror. Cracked the mirror.
I nail cowbirds and dove all the time. They flush right when I get to them, and sometimes, they cross over. *thump* :lol: It's funny how high they soar when they hit the fairing (spelling).

The owl I hit, hit the air deflector on top. Didn't crack the fiberglass up there, but it sure did a lot of going up before it started coming back down. It wasn't flying anymore, just the inertia after being hit. Not something I wanted to hit. I like owls and birds like that. Almost hit an eagle too, one day. Sure glad I missed that one. Came out of the ditch with rabbit in his talons, and I got a really close look. Another time, one flew across the road with a live snake hanging down. But, no matter what bird I hit, I always made sure that when I stopped, I was out of the way of traffic. The turkey was the only time I stopped on the side of a ramp. The rest of the time, it waited till I got to a truck stop.

I do my share of wiping out the turkey population in the spring. Some evenings, there might be 6 or 8 of them in a flock that strut across the highway. They don't take off like a dove, so I usually knock out a couple of them. :p You don't realize how many feathers they have till you nail one. :lol: :eek2:

Wait till one day, you see one drop down into your view, right in front of the truck. Pray the impact is on the passenger's side. It would also be a good thing to be wearing glasses. The glass from the windshield goes all over the place. The corner post took up a good deal of the impact from the one I hit. If not for that, it would have come through and landed in my lap. They DO fly every now and then.

I figured if you hit one, at a pretty good speed...I would imagine it would be like hitting a hawk, or owl. :eek2:

Here is the simple question. Is an on-ramp a parking lot? Sure, trucks park there all the time but they do so at their own peril. Don't matter if the driver was distracted, it was foggy, drunk, whatever. There are better places to park. If you run out of drive/work hrs and you're in the middle of BFE....then you didn't plan your trip very well. You ran out of time willingly or stupidly in BFE....and chose to park on a ramp. You accept the risks of doing so. If you park a truck, non emergency, you dont belong in the emergency lane. and that part of the road is still the emergency lane.

For all of you who had hoped i died, or moved on doing another career...sorry....still driving, same company....same ol a--hole. =) sorry to burst your bubbles. HAHAHAHAH

Oh come on now, you know we love you :thumbsup:

hes from vermont so he is automatically guilty

Stopping on a shoulder or ramp is one thing, stopping in your lane demands a good GD reason. I hope Hunt has one . .

Eastern Wake News | Truck driver identified in fatal wreck on U.S. 64

That was an UGLY wreck.. The Preferred tractors cab and engine were torn from the frame... It's a shame the driver died because of another drivers inattention... That section of 64 is notorious for inattentive driving especially in the morning!!!!!!!!

As of today the reason is still unknown why the Hunt driver stopped in the travel lane... Speculation is traffic had come to an immediate slow down..

That day was not a good day for trucking. Earlier that day a truck, a lowboy, was stuck on a railroad crossing and was hit by an Amtrak train.. Fortunately no one was killed!!!!

Not reading many details but is it possible he simply broke down and was rear ended before he could get out and place triangles? Or it could be like the Doc said, a sudden slow down in traffic and the Preferred truck was simply too close. That happened here 3 or 4 years ago with a Haz-Mat load. Some Interstate paving was going on overnight and traffic came to a sudden stop, last truck in line had just got stopped when he got plowed from behind and shoved into the 2 trucks in front of him.

I was placed OOS by Oregon a couple years ago. I was traveling north on I-5 at about 1 am and had stopped 4 times already looking for a parking spot. The scale that put me OOS was where I had planned on looking for parking next. The kid at the scale (and I DO mean kid… he looked like a classmate of my 17 year-old son) didn't seem to care one bit that I was only driving past the 11th hour because I was having difficulty locating a safe place to park.

My old co-driver hit a big turkey while doing 70mph on US-441 in FL. Stupid thing came right through the windshield and landed on the passenger’s seat. Blood, feathers and glass were everywhere. We had that Freightliner for about sixteen more months and til the day we gave it up, every time we’d vacuum the truck we’d find glass and even an occasional feather.

On the other hand, I hit a meadowlark in Missouri a few weeks ago and it wedged between the right corner of the visor and roof. We drove around for an entire day and half the night and only noticed it when we stopped to fuel and I was cleaning the windshield.

I have a few questions . .

Sometimes it seems a U turn is the only way out of bad situation and I've made my share of them. In 6 years I think I've seen three 18w's pull one on the interstate and two of those were to escape shutdowns due to accidents. The third was a Hunt on a perfectly clear, beautiful day on the lightly travelled portion of I-81 in VA.

How does a driver make it through any kind of training program without hearing at least once that the easiest fix on the interstate is the next exit?

What circumstances would you consider appropriate to attempt an interstate U turn?

Are I-80 near Davenport, 0330 and fog appropriate circumstances?

I-80 fatality still under investigation

Last question: How many years should this guy get?

A U-turn on an interstate, I would never pull it whether I'm in a CMV or my PMV, not when I can do the same thing at a ramp. I see 4 wheelers do it all the time in WV, must be allowed there? I would give this guy at least 5 years and pull his CDL for good. NO explanation is good enough for what he pulled.

i would agree....there are situations where its a last resort. Your shutdown due to an accident is a good one. i've done them but only when i know i've got plenty of room, and i know the area i'm about to pull one has very little traffic at the time. other than that, there is no reason to pull a u-turn. why not just wait for another mile or two, and catch the next off ramp and make 2 left turns?

the fact that the driver was SHUTDOWN, parked on an on-ramp when he got rear-ended.....the side of the road is not a parking lot. it is for emergencies. Some drivers, thats the only place they stop because of a personal preferance of not liking rest areas and truck stops. Well....fine....but accept the responsibility that you've parked your truck in an emergency lane on a public road with dumb 4-wheelers. its asking for trouble. i'd say he should get 2 yrs mandatory. But done driving a truck for the rest of his life.

I much preferred the emergency stopping areas of the PA Turnpike, large pronounced alcoves of sorts, large enough to fit 3-5 trucks in comfortably and still have 15 feet or so to the shoulder of the highway.

but still, should a van full of menonites lose control and clip your truck, then go spinning off to the other side of the turnpike where it then gets t-boned by a flatbed....the accident is still your fault.