Bail lowered for trucker indicted in deadly Angeles Crest Highw...

This horrible driver should NOT be let out of prison, to kill again. At the very least, he should be locked up a LONG TIME & convicted of manslaughter. 20 years min.

This sounds like a witch hunt in order to avoid being held liable by the city. Look out fellow Californians, your next auto accident could turn into prison time.

Ship him back to his own country!

There shouldn't be bail for anybody. This country is so seriously hard up for cash. Disgusting that there is bail for fools who do even worse than that. Most of the time a criminal gets bailed out they're gonna run away & into another country.

I also live in Palmdale, and have four kids of my own. I would be completely devastated of anything happened to one of my children. But this article doesn't say anything about the truck driver doing anything wrong. He lost his brakes!!! The one who's guilty here is clearly Caltrans, and the state of California, for not dealing with that issue before people were killed. So they shut that part of the highway for 90 lousy days. So what? Like that's going to help anything. It sounds as though this man is being sent to the slaughter house to cover up the negligence of our state. Shameful..... very, very shameful!

If he had been drinking or driving recklessly, i would say he was to blame. But for his brakes failing..... that could happen to anyone.

Its not his fault officials said it was safe for trucks to go thru that area ,and the city never did a thing about it!why should he suffer for what the city is at fault for!

A Brazilian National, and he may not be a flight risk? Please don't tell me someone is that gullible. McFly was the last person that gullible!

Kim LA West wrote:

This horrible driver should NOT be let out of prison, to kill again. At the very least, he should be locked up a LONG TIME & convicted of manslaughter. 20 years min.

Shut up ya dumb B-iatch! The driver was from out of State, not familiar with the roads. He didn't intentionally drive around looking to kill anyone, that's why it's called an accident.
He's being used as a scapegoat for the State, so they can shift the blame off themselves.
Nice going Caltrans, bunch of A-holes.

And the finger pointing will continue; blame factor will ultimately fall on the little guy, as usual. Affluent La Canada and the politics of law. Those responsible will walk.

Oh, and about the $600,000 bail. I've always heard that the actual upfront cash one has to come up with is 10% of the bail amount ($60K) which is a far cry from over a half-million.

TomThumb wrote:

And the finger pointing will continue; blame factor will ultimately fall on the little guy, as usual. Affluent La Canada and the politics of law. Those responsible will walk.
Oh, and about the $600,000 bail. I've always heard that the actual upfront cash one has to come up with is 10% of the bail amount ($60K) which is a far cry from over a half-million.

That's $60k that they probably don't have and if they do, they will never get it back.

Valerie wrote:

I also live in Palmdale, and have four kids of my own. I would be completely devastated of anything happened to one of my children. But this article doesn't say anything about the truck driver doing anything wrong. He lost his brakes!!! The one who's guilty here is clearly Caltrans, and the state of California, for not dealing with that issue before people were killed. So they shut that part of the highway for 90 lousy days. So what? Like that's going to help anything. It sounds as though this man is being sent to the slaughter house to cover up the negligence of our state. Shameful..... very, very shameful!
If he had been drinking or driving recklessly, i would say he was to blame. But for his brakes failing..... that could happen to anyone.

Isn't it the responsibility of the government to place a "run away ramp" on such a dangerous road. I hope he files and wins a civil suit for millions.

This seems to be kind of a gray area to me. If the man had been drunk, I'd be like yah, put that man in jail right now. I don't think however that he could control the exact moment he lost his brakes. I know that DOT regulations in most states put the safety of the vehicle in the hands of the driver, but how could this man have known that the breaks would fail. If you could prove that the man had prior knowledge of an impending failure then it would be a pretty sure case, but how will you prove that? Did the man own the vehicle or was it company owned. If it was company owned you might be able to prove negligence on the part of the company.

He will run back to his country just like the coward illegal mexicans do.I bet his driving and maintenance logs will reflect the truth and the reason his bail was so high.This is NOT brazil the roads here have rules to follow.

Ok first the driver is a Brazilian citizen? DEPORTED is my thought. We are going to keep this person with what income? He can't do this job so now what sit and collect? Great another burden to our Ca. economy. Nothing will bring the 2 people back and CalTrans shame on you-90day ban for trucks that don't need to go over the 2 should be permanent. Only trucks that have deliveries should be on that winding road. I grew up in that area and it finally took this tragedy for this to happen. These type of accidents are nothing new. The wheels are certainly slow until someone gets killed, as usual.

The crazy part is that Angeles Crest Hwy is a rediculous route to take for a truck. It is jam-packed with curves and turns, narrow lanes, . . and a steep grade heading down to Flitridge at the tail end of a precarious drive. It should be limited to auto traffic, especially now since we've decided to move to the lowest common denominator in our trucking industry.

there is a runaway median . . the driver apparently didn't know how to use it. But the last stretch of that hwy is a fairly long downhill run, after miles and miles of twisty, curvy, downhill driving. It really is no place for a truck. And driving through this mountainous road saves no time. There must be a compelling reason this bail was set so high initially.

Those who have followed this case know that Cal Trans is as responsible for this tragedy as the truck driver, probably more so. Despite repeated pleas from the City of La Canada -- and a very serious accident several months before -- CalTRans has refused to ban trucks from Route 2 (Angeles Crest Hwy). And the signs on Angeles Forest Hwy (the cut-through from Palmdale to Route 2) prohibiting trucks were either missing or hard to see. The out-of-state driver evidently followed his GPS over the hill, then lost his brakes on the way down.

This incident was a tragedy for everyone involved, especially the family that lost their father and daughter. It may be manslaughter, if negligence is proven, but it was not murder -- and it was wrong (and stupid grandstanding) for the DA to charge that.

I kind of feel for the guy. He was an out of state trucker looking for a way around the traffic snarls in the Valley and the East LA ( East Delay ) interchange. I drove trucks to pay for college. Dispatchers give you impossible missions, long trips with delivery appointments that often require the driver to speed and run more hours than the regulations allow to meet the dispatcher'a ambitious scheduling. Truck companies do not maintain their vehicles well, and drivers are paid by the load and by the mile, so doing a fifteen or twenty minute pre-trip inspection on their equipment is rare. Nobody will do work they aren't going to be paid to do. I used to be mocked by other drivers for doing a daily brake check, even had a mechanic one day tell me I was damaging the brakes by doing the air check. Moron, he was afraid I would find a defect, but that is the state of the industry here.
One other thing, by law state highways are designated truck routes. It requires a specific act of the legislature to ban trucks from a state highway, and the California Trucking Association and the American Trucking Association, plus the Owner Operators and Independent Drivers Association will fight these rulings tooth and nail.
One last thing, the old truck runaway gravel trap in the middle of the road near the bottom of that hill was blocked by shrubbery. The gravel trap is still there but it's hidden by oleander. It was put there because of the high likelihood a truck would loose it's brakes. The gravel trap will stop the truck before it causes a catastrophy. You will see similar traps on most mountain highways trucks use.
If you have never been driving a big truck in a strange city under the gun to meet some impossible deadline, driving roads you have never been on, then it's tough to know what that guy faced. Yes, he messed up and should be punished, no doubt in my mind, but his dispatcher probably should do the real hard time. They are mostly evil incarnate from my experience.

This guy was not allowed to operate that size of truck LEGALLY on Angeles Crest Highway. Ignorance of the law is no excuse(unless you are a foreigner)? He3 will be convicted, and loose his Green Card.Then deported.

Paco de Taco wrote:

This guy was not allowed to operate that size of truck LEGALLY on Angeles Crest Highway. Ignorance of the law is no excuse(unless you are a foreigner)? He3 will be convicted, and loose his Green Card.Then deported.

Actually, there was no prohibition on the Crest prior to that wreck. It's a state highway and as such is considered to be a designated truck route on the maps truckers buy.