Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
I’m not approving anymore of Chris posts to this thread. Sorry. His politics makes me sick...
I am more in line with the way Norway handles crime and punishment. They have the lowest recidivism rates in the western world. They don't have this success because they're extra, "hard on crime". Quite the opposite. Do you want a better world with lower crime rates and recidivism rates, or do you just want to punish people because... spite?
It just isn't productive in any manner to give Rogel 110 years. It costs a lot of money, and it means his son doesn't get a dad, etc. Let us be pragmatic.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
When he made the decision to bypass the runaway ramps...and not make any other attempts to stop, or prevent the "accident"....he intentionally decided to crash into these cars...which, removes the word "accident" from the description.
I don't know anything about the road he was on. Is it normal for traffic to be stopped up? Perhaps he thought he could ride it out to the bottom. That's what my instructor did. He said, "The DOT thinks runaway ramps are the best thing since sliced bread, but I don't agree." As he shared his story where he rode it out to the bottom. My guess is, Rogel didn't anticipate being totally blocked off. I'll save labeling someone a murderer for intentional acts.
We have the luxury of studying everything related to the accident with unlimited time. Rogel had to make quick decisions, and he made the wrong ones. I think this accident is an excellent thing for new truck drivers to study and learn from. It definitely changed my perspective about runaway ramps. I was influenced by the wrong instructor when I went to truck driving school.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
The title of this post has been bothering me. Doesn't he mean consecutive and not concurrent? Anyway, I was looking into it more, and one of the victim's daughters, who lost their dad during the crash, said she doesn't want Rogel Aguilera-Mederos's son to lose his father too. A great show of forgiveness.
What good does sending Rogel to prison for 110 years do? It just makes him another life lost in the accident as far as I see it. It sounds like the DA is thinking about reducing his sentence. Good.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
So you signed the petition, you obviously want to see this guy get out of prison sooner. Do you think it will reduce your taxes? How exactly will it cost you less?
On average, it costs 25k-30k to keep someone in prison per year.
Again, don't take this questioning statement the wrong way but damn man, really?
It boils down to the fact that I have little faith in people that build our roads. It's also the case that, when just flying by, I don't have a long time to analyze the situation. Since it didn't fit my conception of what a runaway a truck ramp should look like, I wouldn't even be sure I was looking at one. I would be confused. Also, my IQ used to be quite a bit above average. I don't know if it is anymore. I'm dealing with mental illness.
So Chris... I asked you what you thought was a fair sentence. You haven’t answered the question.
Sorry G-Town, I missed that you asked me. I wouldn't even send the guy to prison. I'd make him pay money out to the surviving victims, and victim's relative, for the rest of his life.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
Papa Pig,
What I am saying is that I can relate to his decision to not take the run away truck ramp since it went down hill. I was under the misconception that they worked with gravity, when in reality, they work with friction. He couldn't predict there would be a truck blocking his path further down the road, etc. Now that I know how the ramps work, it's obvious he should have taken it.
Trucking schools should probably all have their students learn from this guy's mistake. Like I said, when I was in school, the instructor actually told us a story about him losing his brakes, and avoiding the run away ramps. His story doesn't end with him going to jail because he didn't run into a wall of cars further down the road.
It's easy to be vindictive and say the guy deserves it all, but all it does is cost us money while he rots in jail. Anyway, I signed the petition, and I think it's very likely he'll get his sentence reduced, at the very least.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
Banks,
I don't disagree that he made a series of poor choices. I just don't think he deserves a sentence that's more than what most murderers get. I also don't see why we should waste our tax payer money to keep someone locked up for life that isn't dangerous to us. I say let him earn money and take it from him to pay the victim's families back.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
Laura/IDMtnGal,
I watched a bunch of videos of trucks going into escape ramps, and now that I know how they work, I'd definitely go down one, even if it went down hill. However, I may not have made the right decision if I didn't look into it before hand. Infact, when I was in truck driving school, my classroom teacher shared a story about how he lost his brakes, and he didn't use an escape ramp. He actually thought they were quite dangerous to use.
Also, didn't your truck require repair after using the escape ramp? It looks like they get beat up... I suspect it totally screws up wheel alignment at the very least.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
It's already hard enough to land a trucking job. If employers risk criminal charges on behalf of their employees, us noobs will never get hired. It is also hard to pass at the DMV - at least it is for me. It's probable that standards vary across the country, however. I'm not sure what language had to do with this guy killing people, however. He failed to go down a runaway truck ramp that went downhill. I might decide against using such a ramp myself. It looks like a suicide ramp. He didn't fail to go down it because he couldn't read English. He made a fast judgment, and it ended up being the wrong one.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
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The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
He added that he had always seen runaway truck ramps that go uphill, not downhill like the ramp he passed on I-70 heading toward Denver."
I watched the video of that, and was confused too. I was trying to make sense of the fact it was going down hill. Was the guy recording it holding the cell phone at a weird angle or what? It looks more like a suicide ramp to me.
Anyway, the dude has bad judgment and shouldn't be a truck driver. Sadly, he figured that out the worst way possible.
Posted: 2 years, 3 months ago
View Topic:
The verdict is in……. 110 years concurrent life sentences
The story is still ongoing. Millions of people signed the same petition I did. It's not like my viewpoints are edgy. They are mainstream, and the 110 year sentence isn't going to last. Even a lot of truck drivers say they're going to refuse to drive in Colorado ever again because of it. Nothing I'm saying here, for the most part, is idiotic. I will admit a bit of daftness for not trusting a run away ramp that goes down hill, but I shared because I can relate to how Rogel was thinking. Again, we have the luxury of plenty of time to analyze the bad decisions he made. He didn't.
I didn't even realize that I was getting people upset until G-Town shared. I feel I'm just defending my perspective, and like I said, I think us noobs can learn a lot from Rogel's mistakes. Also, I'm not nearly as far left as you suspect - I'm just slightly left on a political compass.