Posted on 04/19/2019 11:09:23 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A Colorado truck driver has been charged with five counts of vehicular homicide nearly two years after a fiery crash that killed five people on the Kansas Turnpike near Bonner Springs.
Kenny B. Ford, 58, of Greeley, Colorado, appeared without an attorney Friday morning in Leavenworth County District Court. The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail on each count.
The charges were filed Feb. 26, but remained sealed until Friday’s court appearance.
The July 11, 2017, wreck occurred on westbound Interstate 70 near 174th Street. Traffic was backed up due to road construction when, around 2:30 that Tuesday afternoon, Ford’s semi encountered the backup after cresting a hill.
Unable to stop in time, the truck rammed into an SUV driven by 61-year-old Teresa J. Butler of Urbana, Illinois. The force of the impact spun her GMC Terrain toward a retaining wall, killing Butler and her passenger, Karen Lynn Kennedy, 63, of New Palestine, Ill.
Ford’s truck then hit a car driven by 83-year-old Sheldon Cohen. His wife, 79-year-old Virginia Cohen, was with him. The Topeka couple died when their Buick LaCrosse was pushed into a guardrail and wound up in a ditch.
Finally, the truck hit a Ford Taurus. Its driver, Ricardo Mireles, 38, also from Topeka, was killed when his car was pushed underneath another tractor-trailer and caught fire.
Butler and Kennedy both worked in health care and were on their way to Colorado for vacation. The Cohens were retired Washburn University professors, and Mireles was the father of two and an avid sports fan.
The Kansas Highway Patrol spent more than a year investigating the wreck. Afterward the Leavenworth County Attorney’s office spent several more months weighing the evidence and seeking answers to followup questions, County Attorney Todd Thompson said.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
PING.
2 years to investigate a traffic accident? Was Mueller on this, too?
Reads like a page outta DeathRace 2000.
“More than ordinary negligence, but not gross negligence.”
Even though he killed FIVE people.
I see way too many truck drivers overdriving the conditions.
That said, there’s hills in Kansas??????
Who knew?
Big hills in some areas - I drove somewhere out there (don’t remember where it was) looking for truck parts in the 1980’s. Was really surprised by what I saw.
You must be able to stop within the distance of your vision. Slow down.
What road warnings were in place. Traffic just stopped when you don’t expect it is a tough situation. I get the driver was supposed to be able to stop and I don’t know the exact circumstances but a guy driving 11 hours a day and at one moment comes across stopped traffic seems super human to be able to react and stop.
It’s a misdemeanor with a max 1 year for each?
So the most he could do for 5 dead folks is 5 years.
Not bad.
I didn’t read the whole thing - but I would think an interstate would be designed to go the speed limit and still be able to stop in time coming over a hill.
I was on a hilly, winding road in Oregon. The posted limit imho was about 10 mph faster than what I thought was safe - at least to be able to stop in time for a deer (it was twilight) standing in the road just beyond the curve or hill.
I usually go faster that the posted limit - so it was really odd. Of course every so often I had to find a driveway or wide spot to pull over for the person behind me.
I was lucky on that trip earlier on while on the interstate. A car was on the right shoulder up in the distance - rainy night. I was in the right lane, following a car, and I moved to the left. The car in the right lane swerved out of the way at the last minute to avoid a second car stopped in the right lane. He had plenty of room to swerve in front of me (I had slowed down just a bit), and hopefully I would have been able to react in time if I had still been in the right lane - but it sure spooked me.
He won't do near that and will be back on the road freewheeling again.
As long as he didn’t have a gun on him...
A few years back the average served sentence for premeditated first degree murder was 7 years. No idea what it is now.
I think it is about the same. BTW here in Nevada you would most likely do more time for cheating a casino than for manslaughter.
GOOD GRIEF!!
Going off topic a little but slightly related, we started losing this country long ago.
I started watching the 1978 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and Donald Sutherland gives as a reason for a woman’s husband acting emotionless and odd is that he possibly had become a “republican”, among other things.
I shut it off.
So all the things we stand for, REAL prison terms, patriotism, defending our borders etc., have been considered signs of a mental illness in Hollywood for AT LEAST 40 years.
That needs to change.
I do not see how it is his fault in the least. The Highway Commission has blocked and ruined highway travel by the constant, slow, inconvenient “construction”. What the hell did they think was going to happen? Those eighteen wheelers cannot stop on a dime. They should be confined to their own lane. Or banned completely. But this driver did nothing wrong.
5 for 5. Human life means nothing anymore
My driving instructor in HS gave one bit of advise I remember to this day; to drive like everyone else is an idiot and trying to kill you. I gave same advice when I taught our sons to drive and so far it’s worked for them, too.
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