RV driver in fatal Tennessee accident pleads guilty

[rgatijnet1]

As some of you remember there was an accident that happened in Nashville, Tennessee where a Class A pulling a trailer hit and killed a police officer that was directing traffic. There was quite a bit of discussion on this forum about who was at fault.
The driver of the Class A has plead guilty to Reckless Homicide, a felony, and was placed on two years probation. The charge of fail to yield resulting in a death was dismissed.
There is still a civil lawsuit against the driver by the family of the officer that was killed. Obviously there are no winners in this incident. Be careful out there as your life can be destroyed in an instant. Driver pleads guilty

[soren]

hohenwald48 wrote:
A little different from the rest of the posts in this thread but I read the article referenced early on. I noticed that the investigating officers testified there were no indications of hard braking ie: skid marks from the RV.

It seems I see and hear that a lot when an accident occurs. Isn't the whole point of anti-lock brakes to prevent skid marks? If so then it seems there would never be skid marks due to hard braking at the accident scene. Am I missing something?

There is a video available, created by a dash cam of a car waiting to pull in to traffic, at the time of impact, and a few hundred feet downstream of the collision. The video shows that the motorhome was moving shockingly fast AFTER the impact, MUCH faster than the flow of other vehicles, and certainly wasn't following any directives to slow for construction, or paying attention to any first responders, lane closures, flashing lights, etc.....

I'm surprised by the slap in the wrist punishment, and have no issues with the driver ending up essentially destitute, having taken a life needlessly, and ending up with what is, in reality, a joke of a sentence.

[hohenwald48]

A little different from the rest of the posts in this thread but I read the article referenced early on. I noticed that the investigating officers testified there were no indications of hard braking ie: skid marks from the RV.

It seems I see and hear that a lot when an accident occurs. Isn't the whole point of anti-lock brakes to prevent skid marks? If so then it seems there would never be skid marks due to hard braking at the accident scene. Am I missing something?

[Passin_Thru]

I broke down on the Pa Turnpike east of Pittsburgh and people in RVs would see how close they could come to me with their mirrors. There was plenty room for them to change lanes but they absolutely refused. I actually broke a guys windshield once when he wouldn't get over. I was having trouble with cattle on a trailer and had to climb up to the second deck and get one up. When I climbed down he came by about 1 foot from me and my hotshot was 3 ft long. Made a big smack.

[rgatijnet1]

DutchmenSport wrote:

mike brez wrote:

jwmII wrote:
A reminder of the greed in this country. We're gonna gitcha anyway we can and since we can't stick you in jail for the rest of your life we're gonna break you financially and take everything you have worked all your life for by ignoring the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. constitution. We are bottom feeders, We are called Lawyers and we've found sneaky little ways to do this. Never mind that there was a horrible tragedy and loss to families. Now we're gonna rub it in and get all we can out of it. What a great system. A big pond with scum all over it.

So what do you suggest?

To get out of all the financial problem, wait for everyone to sue you and the judgment is over, then.... file bankruptcy! Bingo! Everything and everybody is gone and no one can touch you financially. The only 2 things bankruptcy will not dissolve are Student Loans and back child support!

Those are two things, there are others.
There are still other types of debts that may be excepted from discharge, if the creditor files an objection. The creditor must file an adversary proceeding in bankruptcy court, requesting that the court decide that the particular debt is nondischargeable. If the judgment creditor files an objection to your discharge and proves the underlying debt to be any of the following types, it may not be dischargeable:

1) injury or death caused by a willful or malicious act.

2)debts owed to government entities (fines, taxes, court costs, restitution in criminal cases, etc.)

3)post-petition HOA and condo fees, and

4)death or injury caused by DUI.


5)fraud used to obtain money, goods or services, such as lying on a credit application, or

6)fraud committed while in a position of trust, such as embezzlement while acting as a trustee or guardian.

Pleading guilty to Reckless Homicide MAY mean that any judgement in civil court is not discharged as in #1 above. I personally would not refer to the young man's parents as greedy.

[bsinmich]

I am very observant of construction zones when workers are around. My daughter drives a roller and had one of her co-workers killed by a speeding driver in a construction zone That could be MY daughter.

[AllegroD]

What is the value of the young police officer to his family. No one is gonna win in this except lawyers and the greedy.

[DutchmenSport]

mike brez wrote:

jwmII wrote:
A reminder of the greed in this country. We're gonna gitcha anyway we can and since we can't stick you in jail for the rest of your life we're gonna break you financially and take everything you have worked all your life for by ignoring the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. constitution. We are bottom feeders, We are called Lawyers and we've found sneaky little ways to do this. Never mind that there was a horrible tragedy and loss to families. Now we're gonna rub it in and get all we can out of it. What a great system. A big pond with scum all over it.

So what do you suggest?

To get out of all the financial problem, wait for everyone to sue you and the judgment is over, then.... file bankruptcy! Bingo! Everything and everybody is gone and no one can touch you financially. The only 2 things bankruptcy will not dissolve are Student Loans and back child support!

[mike_brez]

jwmII wrote:
A reminder of the greed in this country. We're gonna gitcha anyway we can and since we can't stick you in jail for the rest of your life we're gonna break you financially and take everything you have worked all your life for by ignoring the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. constitution. We are bottom feeders, We are called Lawyers and we've found sneaky little ways to do this. Never mind that there was a horrible tragedy and loss to families. Now we're gonna rub it in and get all we can out of it. What a great system. A big pond with scum all over it.

So what do you suggest?

[jwmII]

A reminder of the greed in this country. We're gonna gitcha anyway we can and since we can't stick you in jail for the rest of your life we're gonna break you financially and take everything you have worked all your life for by ignoring the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. constitution. We are bottom feeders, We are called Lawyers and we've found sneaky little ways to do this. Never mind that there was a horrible tragedy and loss to families. Now we're gonna rub it in and get all we can out of it. What a great system. A big pond with scum all over it.

[jwmII]

A reminder of the greed in this country. We're gonna gitcha anyway we can and since we can't stick you in jail for the rest of your life we're gonna break you financially and take everything you have worked all your life for by ignoring the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. constitution. We are bottom feeders, We are called Lawyers and we've found sneaky little ways to do this. Never mind that there was a horrible tragedy and loss to families. Now we're gonna rub it and get all we can out of it. What a great system. A big pond with scum all over it.

[gbopp]

Janss wrote:
A reminder to us all to slow way down when approaching an incident in the road or on the side of the road...no matter what the signs say.

X2. Too many don't have enough sense to slow down, for anything.

[rgatijnet1]

What is the value of a healthy 25 year old?
Hard to say what a jury will recommend but you have to tack legal bills on top of that and I can see a typical $1 million liability policy going away very quickly. Just for the defense of his traffic violation for the last year and 1/2 he may be close to $1 million already.
A $5 million civil judgement would not surprise me.

[Kayteg1]

I figured out in California almost 20 years ago that $1 mil on auto policy, or umbrella is good idea.
With cars costing $200,000 and high hospital bills that adds pretty fast.
Actually I heard about accident when a guy got his legs crushed between cars when he was trying to put registration sticker on his car and drunk driver hit car park behind. The $1 mil went on hospital bills within a year.
BUT, from what I remember CA require only about $150k coverage and lot of people have it.
I can only assume that Tennessee has even lower requirements.

[donfrump]

Kayteg1 wrote:
I assume he had good lawyer and 2 years probation for taking the life does seem light.
I observe that topics about the law always get hot and I blame it to the fact that US law is not consistent.
It is based on person, or judge character, where the same charge will differ between the judge, color of defendant skin etc, etc.
Learning how civil suit end would be interesting.
I doubt the liability coverage on his RV policy covers $1 + million.
Hope he had umbrella policy.

the liability on my bus policy is 3 million that's what I assumed people kept? maybe us is different than Canada?

[Janss]

A reminder to us all to slow way down when approaching an incident in the road or on the side of the road...no matter what the signs say.