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Trucker pleads guilty to charges over deadly crash

The families of three people who died in a Nevada truck accident in 2011 hopefully got a bit of closure when the truck driver responsible for the crash pleaded guilty to charges late last month. The trucker, who is reportedly from Virginia, specifically pleaded guilty to three counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the crash.

According to prosecutors, the trucker admitted that he had been speeding when he crashed into the back of a couple’s vehicle, which caused a collision with a tow truck. Both the couple sitting in the car and the tow truck driver died in the crash. Not only was the trucker speeding, though, he was also in violation of hours-of-service rules intended to prevent truck driver fatigue.

Hours of service rules, enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration consist of various rules which require truckers to take periodic breaks and limit themselves to so many hours behind the wheel. The aim, again, is to keep tired drivers off the road so as to reduce the occurrence of truck accidents. Unfortunately, the trucking industry is not exactly thrilled with recent changes made to hours-of-service rules. This is beside the point, of course, and trucking companies and their drivers are still bound by the regulations.

When truckers fail to abide by hours-of-service rules, they put both themselves and other motorists at risk. Those who are harmed by a truck driver’s failure to follow federal rules have the right to be compensated for their losses and to hold the offending truck driver or trucking company accountable.

Source: Las Vegas Sun, “Trucker pleads guilty in Nevada triple-fatal crash,” March 25, 2014.

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