Truck drivers boycott Colorado over Rogel Aguilera-Mederos sentencing (live, bars)

[COcheesehead]

His brakes failed. Many trucks have this happen on I 70 without killing others. Bad training?
He had an option to use the runaway truck ramp. Would like to hear his reasoning as to why not.
Sentence is too high.
Sad in many ways.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

His brakes failed. Many trucks have this happen on I 70 without killing others. Bad training?
He had an option to use the runaway truck ramp. Would like to hear his reasoning as to why not.
Sentence is too high.
Sad in many ways.

So would I.

Post 14 and a few others point out that he spoke little or no English, thus he couldn't read signage pointing him to the runaway truck ramp. Stunning that his training was so poor that he apparently didn't know such ramps existed or when/how to use them. Stunning too that we let people drive big trucks in the USA if they cannot read English. HH pointed out that the employing firm has had trouble in the past. We've had threads in here over the years (perhaps in the Truck Driving thread in Automotive forum) that our nation had agreed to let Mexican drivers come in and run over our highways which, IIRC, was due to our own shortage of truck drivers, a shortage driven in large part to poor renumeration of drivers which is a topic I know I've seen in the truck drivers thread.

Side diversion: Speaking of 'runaway ramps' the old railroads had some of these back in the mountains of West Virginia. If a train was coming down a mountain too fast the circuitry in the tracks would sense that and automatically switch the rail to a runaway train track which was just a track going back up a steep hill. Woe unto any locomotive engineer who let his train get so far out of his control that it went up one of those ramps. Each railcar that went up the ramp had to be uncoupled from the train and carefully backed down the ramp, one car at a time. The Division Superintendent and Road Foreman of Engines would have gone nutzo crazy on that engineer for the black eye it gave their section of the railroad. I've a copyrighted photo in a book of such a track but cannot find a photo on the web that I can link to.

[wamer27]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

So would I.

Post 14 and a few others point out that he spoke little or no English, thus he couldn't read signage pointing him to the runaway truck ramp. Stunning that his training was so poor that he apparently didn't know such ramps existed or when/how to use them. Stunning too that we let people drive big trucks in the USA if they cannot read English. HH pointed out that the employing firm has had trouble in the past. We've had threads in here over the years (perhaps in the Truck Driving thread in Automotive forum) that our nation had agreed to let Mexican drivers come in and run over our highways which, IIRC, was due to our own shortage of truck drivers, a shortage driven in large part to poor renumeration of drivers which is a topic I know I've seen in the truck drivers thread.

Side diversion: Speaking of 'runaway ramps' the old railroads had some of these back in the mountains of West Virginia. If a train was coming down a mountain too fast the circuitry in the tracks would sense that and automatically switch the rail to a runaway train track which was just a track going back up a steep hill. Woe unto any locomotive engineer who let his train get so far out of his control that it went up one of those ramps. Each railcar that went up the ramp had to be uncoupled from the train and carefully backed down the ramp, one car at a time. The Division Superintendent and Road Foreman of Engines would have gone nutzo crazy on that engineer for the black eye it gave their section of the railroad. I've a copyrighted photo in a book of such a track but cannot find a photo on the web that I can link to.

Is there an international sign for runaway truck ramp or maybe put a sign in Spanish. A sign is about simplest fastest way to try and fix something that caused four deaths because the other fixings don’t work.

[hendrixstyle3]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Drive drunk, kill four people and get a tiny sentence, if any.

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Not sure that is always true...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-t...t-killed-four/

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by wamer27

Is there an international sign for runaway truck ramp or maybe put a sign in Spanish. A sign is about simplest fastest way to try and fix something that caused four deaths because the other fixings don’t work.

The signs are not international or bilingual. They are definitely out dated and don't represent the current generation of truck drivers. You are right they should be upgraded to international standards ASAP.

[hendrixstyle3]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

The signs are not international or bilingual. They are definitely out dated and don't represent the current generation of truck drivers. You are right they should be upgraded to international standards ASAP.

This is the USA. I understand there are other languages spoken here, and I have no issue with that. But EVERYONE who drives a truck should be required to speak enough English to be able to read the roadway signs.

Have a look here:

English is the now the mandated international Language of Aviation

To not mandate that all truckers within the USA speak enough English to be able to read the roadway signs, is ridiculous. It's not the signs that need updating; it's the approach.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by hendrixstyle3

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-t...t-killed-four/

Ah yes, the Ethan Crouch case where the teen was 3 times the legal limit for drunk driving and got probation due to being a spoiled rich kid by claiming he suffered from "affluenza" and never being held to any level of responsibility by his parents.

As a kid I remember hearing the old folks say "there's no justice in America."

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by hendrixstyle3

This is the USA. I understand there are other languages spoken here, and I have no issue with that. But EVERYONE who drives a truck should be required to speak enough English to be able to read the roadway signs.

Have a look here:

English is the now the mandated international Language of Aviation

To not mandate that all truckers within the USA speak enough English to be able to read the roadway signs, is ridiculous. It's not the signs that need updating; it's the approach.

Yeah, that's not working. Truck drivers are not required to be proficient in English, they never have been and they never will be. Signs need to be international or this will happen again.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by hendrixstyle3

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-t...t-killed-four/

You are using an OUT OF STATE SINGLE private party judgement (from Texas no less), under age 18 to respond to :

Not sure that is always true...

100% commercial driver violation (I.e. PROFESSIONAL / career / career driver)



Colorado law does not apply to your example in any way.

[Cloudy Dayz]

China has the signage down perfect. It wouldn't even have to be adopted much for use in the US.