Posted on 12/23/2021 10:02:04 AM PST by BenLurkin
The widow of a Colorado man who was killed in a fiery pileup crash caused by a truck driver has hit out at Kim Kardashian for demanding clemency for her husband's killer...
Kardashian, 41, who is training to become a lawyer in California and has been active in the criminal justice reform movement, this week took to social media to call for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos' mandatory minimum sentence of 110 years in prison to be reduced over the April 2019 crash in which his brakes failed and he plowed into stalled traffic, killing four people.
'I don't think that we want our local proceedings in any state taken over by who has the loudest mouth out there, because people don't know all the details, they are running on emotion,' said the mom-of-three widow, referring to Kardashian.
Kathleen, who delivered an emotional testimony during Aguilera-Mederos' trial, says she believes the driver deserves a sentence of 20 years in prison for committing a series of missteps that resulted in the deadly crash.
Aguilera-Mederos, 26, a Cuban immigrant, was transporting timber in the mountainous western state of Colorado in April 2019 when his brakes stopped working on a downhill stretch and he failed to use an emergency exit ramp.
Instead, the truck slammed into stalled traffic, causing a fiery 28-car pileup that killed four people and injured six others.
Aguilera-Mederos was found guilty by a jury on 27 counts including multiple vehicular homicides, and last week a judge handed down the 110-year sentence, which he said was the mandatory minimum under Colorado law, which requires a defendant to serve consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
No, I don’t think he had an obligation to use the emergency ramps. Going up one of those ramps at 85 mph would almost certainly be fatal, and I don’t think anyone has a responsibility to commit suicide under any circunstances.
Remember that those ramps lead uphill for a total of about 40-50 feet. This is way too little to stop a vehicle going 85 mph. From simple high school physics it’s easy to calculate how much of a change in height is required for a ramp to absorbe the kinetic energy of motion. Here is the formula:
Required height = (mph)^2 / 29.94
For 85 mph, the required height would be 241 feet. Since no emergency ramps provide anywhere near that much height, a fast run up the ramp would be almost certain death.
On the other hand, however, I don’t believe his brakes failed.
Forget my argument aboute height of the ramp. My bad. If the ramp contains gravel beds, a lot of height is not required to bring the vehicle to a stop. Gravel beds are known to be very effective on race tracks.
Educate yourself and you will see he deserves every bit of his sentence. He had numerous opportunities to avoid the tragedy and did NOT do so. Truck drivers are professional and are held to a higher standard.
When you drive what amounts to a guided missle on the road, you are responsible for your actions. He failed multiple chances to avoid the tragedy and now he must pay.
There is footage on youtube of him blowing past an emergency off ramp. He literally swerved away from it and continued on his death run.
Amen brother.
He smoked 4 humans whom had families, dreams, and aspirations.
Brakes on a semi don’t just “go out.” That is utter bullshit, I’m a former flatbed driver.
He intentionally didn’t perform his brake checks and pre-trip inspection before he got into the cab. Failing to own up to it, he also refused to stick his truck in the grass like he should have.
110 is the correct sentence, with the sheer number of counts he had.
Good to hear the voice of reason finally. WAY TOO MANY HERE DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT WENT ON AND ARE JUST GOING WITH THE NARRATIVE ABOUT A POOR IMMIGRANT WHO HAD AN ACCIDENT AND IS BEING PUNISHED FOR IT.
“Air brakes failed did they? How exactly does that happen?”
When descending a steep grade, the weight of a loaded tractor-trailer will accelerate the vehicle. Slowing it down with the service airbrakes will quickly overheat them until they expand the brake drums beyond the ability of the brake linings to exert sufficient pressure against them. It’s called brake fade. Do it a couple of times and the brakes essentially cease to operate (you can even start a fire). Then you have a runaway truck.
To prevent this, you descend the downgrade in the gear below the one you used to ascend the upgrade. You turn on the engine brake (”Jake Brake”). You apply a maximum of 5-10 psi of pressure to the foot brake, watching the dashboard brake application gauge like a hawk. Let the engine scream, head on a swivel, eyes wide open, and ride it down nice and slow.
I’m sorry if this is TMI on a rhetorical question, but most people don’t know about this stuff. Everyone who drives a big truck in the mountains knows that the procedure plus a proper pretrip inspection will keep them from torching their brakes, losing control, destroying their equipment, and killing someone. I’ve done it plenty of times. I’m naturally sympathetic to drivers, but I haven’t heard anything that lets this bird off the hook.
“Educate yourself and you will see he deserves every bit of his sentence.”
AND Where’s the accountability for the company that hired this guy who was untrained unable to speak the language natively and barely licensed. Professional?? Not so much are you. This guy can’t be held to any standard at all. It’s the trucking company that hired him that should be held accountable.
You’re leading a lynch mob.
EDUCATE THAT
Excellent explaination Slim. Thank you.
Do you have a link for this?
Tractor Trailer braking systems do just fail for many reasons.
Catastrophic failure of the air compressor can happen at any time.
You really need get educated on the subject before commenting .
The driver WILLFULLY and INTENTIONALLY killed 4 people by burning them to death. It was no “accident”.
It was NOT an accident.
The driver WILLFULLY and INTENTIONALLY failed to:
- use several run away truck ramps that would have safely stopped him
- use engine braking to slow his rig
- drive in lower gear as REQUIRED
- use the center median rail to slow his rig
as a result of his lack of proper driving, four people burned to death.
It was NOT an accident.
“Tractor Trailer braking systems do just fail for many reasons.
Catastrophic failure of the air compressor can happen at any time.
You really need get educated on the subject before commenting .”
You’re right, genius. Maybe I should have operated tractor-trailers since 1992. Maybe I should have been an instructor in a professionally certified, government-run truck driving school. Maybe I should remember what actually happened when the very thing you’re under-informedly surmising about happened to my Mack while in operation on the interstate. Oh, wait...
A “catastrophic failure” of the service airbrake system would have left two indications of a deployed emergency airbrake system that would survive any fire—and probably a record in the electronics which are built into any tractor sold new in this century. A blown compressor with cold brakes would have left him 10-12 hard service brake applications before the emergency system kicked in. The emergency system is mechanical—not electronic or pneumatic. It’s deployed by loss of service airbrake system pressure. A failed emergency system wouldn’t have let him out of the truckstop to begin with. It would also have been flagged on the documented daily pretrip inspection mandated by federal motor carrier code. Which would have triggered a competent driver’s mandated refusal to operate the equipment until it was set right.
This guy cooked his brakes on a mountain downgrade through laziness, incompetence, or both. I doubt he would have been handed this sentence if he’d been humble enough to admit that frankly from the get-go. I also doubt that he’ll serve a majority of it no matter what else happens. My sympathies are with the dead people and their dear ones.
I didn’t care for Trump caving to her celebrity status to release Cyntoia Brown.
What does Trump have to do with this? Chris Christie, is that you? Have some more donuts and shut up.
Your statement was dumb !
Semi breaking systems do completely fail.
You saying they don’t with all your so called experience is completely MORONIC!
Just own it and say you were wrong!
This is like talking to my ex-wife. Refutation isn’t your strong suit. Pointless verbal pie fights with the cluefully underprivileged aren’t mine. Sell those sausages to somebody else, sport. Nobody around here is buying.
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