Having just taken a road trip to North Carolina on the very route this happened on the very day it happened, I cannot help but comment on the tragic events that occurred hours after I went through the same area. There was a lot construction along the way, many slow downs and stops, but there were countless signs and warnings that you would have to be vision-impaired not to notice.
I just read the driver of the truck that crashed into the eight stopped cars was a wanted man in another state. How can it be Tennessee officials just let him go back to Kentucky? Also I read that he had been cited for careless driving just the day before in Florida. Seriously? And we let him go? Isn't the first thing an officer does when a driver is stopped for a suspected violation to run his drivers license to see if there are any outstanding warrants/violations?
I cannot fathom why this man was not detained until the investigation into the deaths of six innocent people was complete. Did he simply say, “Oops, I didn’t see the slow-down signs?"
Another thing I wonder, he had a passenger. I believe any driver who has ever ridden with a passenger has had to put up with back seat driving. My poor husband cannot approach a red light without me announcing that it is coming up. You would think the passenger might have noticed the signs.
I do trust that our Tennessee officials are doing a very thorough job, I really do, but I do not understand why they let the driver go back home to undoubtedly secure the best legal advice he can and to give him time to “perfect” his story. This was not an accident, it was a crime. And if it turns out his brakes failed, it is the liability of the trucking company, still a crime to allow a faulty vehicle on the road.
May God be with the families.
Dawn Devine
Harrison
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I agree 100 percent with Dawn Devine. The tragic accident on 1-75 Thursday night was not an accident but a crime. I use Exit 11 every day. There was the overhead sign and a sign on each side of the road giving a two mile warning of the work site. This was one mile from where the accident occurred. In addition. .3 of a mile from the signs there is a downhill grade that provided the driver a clear view of the traffic already stopped ahead of him for .7 of a mile. What in the world were he and his passenger doing to not see traffic was already backed up?
This is very similar to the accident on I-16 in Georgia that killed five young college students earlier this year. How much longer are going to allow negligent truck drivers to murder innocent people on our highways?
Douglas Jones
Ooltewah