Tow Truck driver killed when a passing truck hit him NO CHARGES FILED??????????

[lappir]

The link below shows a story of an 18 year old Tow Truck Operator who was struck by a vehicle and killed while he was offering aid to a Motorist.

Law enforcement apparently tried to charge the individual but the LAWYERS, declined to prosecute.

Please share this with all of your friends, at least to remind them why they need to be diligent in watching the road while driving.

Rod




Corrected link
http://fox4kc.com/2014/02/03/tow-truck-drivers-parents-believe-justice-wasnt-served-for-fallen-son/ - Google Search

This is simply unbelievable. How can someone who cannot control their vehicle still possess a drivers license, let alone remain out of jail after killing someone????????

The company he was driving for certainly has paid a price in court, how can the person operating their vehicle get off with maybe only the loss of a job? (It's not indicated if he is still driving for the company or not. )

For my friends who don't know, I personally knew this person. He was the boyfriend of my cousins daughter. Great kid, hard worker had a bright future ahead of him. At one of my visits he brought his brand new tow vehicle to pick up Alyssa as she was going to ride along on a long trip either picking up a car or delivering one to a dealer. They were a cute couple.

I also have personal experience being at the side of the road at times. First in my younger years also as a tow vehicle operator, next as an EMS person providing care to the ill and injured and more recently having the misfortune of running out of gas on my motorcycle between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. I could not believe the number of vehicles that seemed to get closer to me as they drove by instead of pulling over into the other lane to provide safe passage. MOST of the time the opposite lane was completely free of traffic.

I also notice when driving the number of people who do not slow down or pull over when there is a vehicle on the side of the road. Lets take all the speeding cameras and place them along the interstates and start giving tickets out to people who don't pull over for a vehicle that is along the side of the road. There is no excuse. It could be you some day.


http://towconnection...ash-near-Bond-B

The above link is to some of the stories from the day of the accident.

[D Lindy]

IN New York IT"S THE LAW that you MUST either slow down OR move over for any and all emergency vehs. (Law or medical), highway workers, and tow/service vehicle that are on the shoulder of the highway.

[spritz]

Same in Minn, move to other lane or get a ticket, actually seen it happen If safe and possible move over if not slow down a bit anyway.
tb

[spritz]

Originally Posted by lappir

The link below shows a story of an 18 year old Tow Truck Operator who was struck by a vehicle and killed while he was offering aid to a Motorist.

Law enforcement apparently tried to charge the individual but the LAWYERS, declined to prosecute.

Please share this with all of your friends, at least to remind them why they need to be diligent in watching the road while driving.

Rod







http://fox4kc.com/20...for-fallen-son/

This is simply unbelievable. How can someone who cannot control their vehicle still possess a drivers license, let alone remain out of jail after killing someone????????

The company he was driving for certainly has paid a price in court, how can the person operating their vehicle get off with maybe only the loss of a job? (It's not indicated if he is still driving for the company or not. )

For my friends who don't know, I personally knew this person. He was the boyfriend of my cousins daughter. Great kid, hard worker had a bright future ahead of him. At one of my visits he brought his brand new tow vehicle to pick up Alyssa as she was going to ride along on a long trip either picking up a car or delivering one to a dealer. They were a cute couple.

I also have personal experience being at the side of the road at times. First in my younger years also as a tow vehicle operator, next as an EMS person providing care to the ill and injured and more recently having the misfortune of running out of gas on my motorcycle between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. I could not believe the number of vehicles that seemed to get closer to me as they drove by instead of pulling over into the other lane to provide safe passage. MOST of the time the opposite lane was completely free of traffic.

I also notice when driving the number of people who do not slow down or pull over when there is a vehicle on the side of the road. Lets take all the speeding cameras and place them along the interstates and start giving tickets out to people who don't pull over for a vehicle that is along the side of the road. There is no excuse. It could be you some day.


http://towconnection...ash-near-Bond-B

The above link is to some of the stories from the day of the accident.

Neither sites work for me anyhow?? How sad.
tb

[Thebaldeagle]

Neither site works for me either but remember!

There are at least 4 versions of this story, the driver if the car's story, the traffic scene investigation team's story, the TRUTH and unfortunately, the News Media's story which
I have found is more unreliable than a 5 year old with chocolate covering his face saying he has no idea what happened to the candy.

I too have been a Paramedic, a Firefighter and a tow truck driver. Too many times I've seen people who assumed they were clear step out in front of traffic. Luckily all I watched were able to stop before getting struck. However if any if the vehicles had been just a couple feet closer there would have been a fatality.

Let's not be fast to judge this driver's actions big the prosecutor felt no charges needed filed obviously there is more to the story! Maybe he did slow down but due to oncoming traffic was unable to move over, maybe the tow truck driver stepped out in front of him. We don't know, we weren't there. Let's let our legal system deal with it and if they decide it's non-prosecutable, why question it?

[ahicks]

This is a pet peeve of mine as well. Too often you hear about "investigations" afterward regarding responsibility, but never the results of the "investigation"?

When a driver turns left in front of a motorcycle, how much "investigating" needs to be done? Am I being naive here, regarding the potential for the driver turning left and taking a life, and NOT being responsible?

[JohnRR]

Try this link

http://fox4kc.com/2014/02/03/tow-truck-drivers-parents-believe-justice-wasnt-served-for-fallen-son/ - Google Search

[Daveinet]

There is a real problem with the move over/slow down law. While it may sound good in theory, it seldom works out in real practice. Traveling at freeway speeds, very often by the time you actually can see a vehicle on the side of the road, it is too late to make a safe substantial response. In other words, you don't want to brake very hard on the freeway because of the potential accordion affect behind you. That is much more hazardous than just going past at speed. Typically you let off the gas, but since the person next to you does the same thing, you can't change lanes. Worse yet, if the road conditions are marginal, the last thing you want to do is disturb the normal flow of traffic. About 2 weeks ago, I had a police officer wipe out in front of me. He crossed 4 lanes of traffic and ended up facing me in my lane. Road conditions were ice, so I just gently squeezed passed him, only giving him about a foot of space. I barely gave him space, but yet did the safest thing possible, based on my surroundings and conditions.

In a case like this, it is pretty easy to get locked into a zone, seeing everything but the hazard. The human brain fills in what it expects to see. That is pretty normal. Ask any officer and they will tell you that when an accident occurs, the defendant will swear up and down that a traffic light was green, or that something happened that did not occur. These people are not just liars, but their brain filled in the space, what it expected to see, rather than what was real. Should someone go to jail, because of the normal human brain response?

What would be helpful is to figure out how to train our brains to see and recognize potential hazards. If the brain expects a hazard, it will fill in what it expects to see, and error on the safe side, rather than expecting normal and missing the hazard. I used to drive into downtown Chicago every day on a motorcycle. That is one way to get trained how to recognize potential hazards.

Try taking this test and see how you do:Rider PerceptionIts a motorcycle test, but most of it applies to any motor vehicle.

[Rockysvet]

Very well stated Daveinet

[lymanlouis]

All things being equal you should be able to see any obstructions ahead of you and stop before they are a factor. Particularly a vehicle with strobe lights flashing on the side of the road. Otherwise, you are driving too fast for the conditions. Could there be exceptions? Sure. But, for the most part, slowing down, moving left (or right) and giving emergency and construction worker the clearance they need to safely do their job is simply the right thing to do.

Trooper Nearly Killed In Accident Caught On Tape! - YouTube

[lappir]

Originally Posted by lymanlouis

All things being equal you should be able to see any obstructions ahead of you and stop before they are a factor. Particularly a vehicle with strobe lights flashing on the side of the road. Otherwise, you are driving too fast for the conditions. Could there be exceptions? Sure. But, for the most part, slowing down, moving left (or right) and giving emergency and construction worker the clearance they need to safely do their job is simply the right thing to do.

Trooper Nearly Killed In Accident Caught On Tape! - YouTube

As a driver you are responsible to operate it safely in all conditions. If you cannot then you should be off the road.

There are way too many people who do not "drive" their vehicles, they just seem to ride in them, especially on multi lane roads. They get lulled into the fact that all the people around them are heading in the same direction so they don't pay much attention. The worst offenders are the ones who enter a multi-lane road with a mile of unoccupied space in front of them and their only concern is to get in the "fast lane" and then they set their cruise control and just sit there and what ever speed they have chosen to drive at. Apparently they don't understand the concept of keeping to the right unless passing another vehicle. Keeping the left lane open should be a priority. Then when it is time to yield to an emergency or other vehicle everyone has room to move over. Especially at speed.

Keep Right except to Pass. and Pass with a Purpose were two items I drilled into my daughter when I taught her to drive. Especially when she commented the "professional" drivers ed teacher advised her differently.

Rod

[OrngTrillium]

I'm all for stricter driving tests and even retests every 3-5-7 years (whatever they can work out). I find a lot of "accidents" are really avoidable collisions. The problem is speeding is easy to enforce but there are so many bad drivers out there giving tickets for being our of blinker fluid or expecting merging traffic to adjust to the flow (not the other way around), or tickets for the "I have to be ahead of you even if I am driving slower) that enforcement for laws is just a muddy mess. The first thing I thought of was I might slow down to the legal threshold (which is usually lower then what people do slow down to) but the next several cars won't. I do know police cruisers park offset to help "shield" the LEO at the window however even that isn't exactly foolproof protection. I see this more of a we need to enforce bad driving more. I'm not advocating speeding but I see a driver doing 10 over who is attentive and actually knows how her vehicle reacts (Ie she won't panic and lift of the brake when the ABS activates and knows to steer then brake around an obstacle etc) is safer then the cell-phone toter who never signals and can't stay in their lane even when they aren't on the phone (How hard is it really to know how to be centered in a lane especially when lanes can be twice the width of a car). It's unfortunate things like this happen but we don't know the full story if it's a matter of "the guilty has clout" or if the tow truck driver (may he rest in peace) simply was inattentive and could have avoided this. We can say odds are the driver was guilty but we don't know the exact circumstances.

[rbpower]

I own a towing and repo company 4 trucks 9 drivers.. this is one of my worst fears, we do not do much road side work but when we do I make them get the vehicle off the road and in a parking lot to deal with the flat or dead batt. a friend has a company in south Fl one of his drivers was shot and killed removing a abandond car from a apartment.


Man facing murder charge in death of tow-truck driver - Top Stories - MiamiHerald.com

[wa8yxm]

This is an argument for dash cameras.. NOT being there I can not say what happened and thus can not say if charges should be filed.. There was a witness (The stranded motorist) and I'm sure his or her testimony was a big part of the decision.

IN Michigan and many other states the law is if you see a Tow Truck, (Police, Fire, Ambulance, Etc) on the side "Advertising" (Flashing or rotating "Emergency" lights on) you are supposed to either move over or slow down... I do not know if this is the case in NY and have no desire to research it.

IF there is no "move over law" and the tow truck driver was say in front of his truck and then stepped out in front of the other truck just as it passed.... No charges is the proper thing to file. It is the fault of the deceased.. Kind of like throwing yourself in front of a bus or train.

IF on the other hand. There IS such a law, or the moving truck swerved toward the deceased.. Murder is in order (Humble opinion) .

That said. I was not there, I'm not a lawyer, I am a retired police dispatcher and we did file charges in a few cases like that, Got some convictions too.