www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-36358344
Wonder what he was doing (other than actually looking at where he was going)
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Other reports suggest he fell asleep.
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I'm not convinced that sticking this bloke in prison is going to serve any useful purpose whatsoever. The best and most appropriate thing to do would be to take away his driving licence and ban him from driving for life + some community service.
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It might just give others, especially professional drivers, second thought of the consequences if tempted to continue driving with such a condition.
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I think something like this has to result in a custodial sentence. Shear luck that 5 people were not killed instead of being gravely injured. Also has to have an element of "pour décourager les autres".
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Looks as though, like the Glasgow bin man, he carried on driving knowing he had a medical condition that might leave him incapacitated at the wheel.
On that basis custody justified 'as an example to the others'.
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"On that basis custody justified 'as an example to the others'."
I believe that the Glasgow chap killed 6; I couldn't find any reference to him doing time as a consequence?
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>> I believe that the Glasgow chap killed 6; I couldn't find any reference to him
>> doing time as a consequence?
I think there's a consensus that the prosecutor dropped the ball on that one although elapsed time might have been a problem if bin man had a smart lawyer.
Driver in instant case pleaded guilty.
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Worth noting that he consulted his Doctor about this problem in 2011 and would have had to have had an HGV medical every 5 years after he was 45 years old.
Pat
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These are tragic cases.
You have to blame, but can surely understand, a professional driver with no other income who takes risks with a known medical condition. No one willingly admits to waning powers.
You might expect employers to take a more aggressive role. But they know and like the drivers. They are used to them.
Fingers crossed, as many of us think when we are bowling round the lanes.
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Must be the most understanding post of 2016 AC, glad someone knows just how it is.
Pat
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I hope you would both maintain your 'understanding' when it's one of your loved ones squished under the wheels.
I certainly lost mine under those circumstances and have yet to regain it, 33 years, almost to the day, after the fact.
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>> I hope you would both maintain your 'understanding' when it's one of your loved ones squished under the wheels.
I would hope so too Alanovic (sorry the accents are playing up).
I can see though that you have suffered a lasting trauma by losing a child. I would hate to lose any of my descendants. You have my sympathy, for what it's worth. You must be terribly upset.
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Father, not child, AC. 33 years ago is the clue.
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>> Father, not child, AC. 33 years ago is the clue.
I'd assumed Alanovic was able to have children 33 years ago, as I was.
Sorry again Alanovic, really very sorry. It's very hard sometimes, losing a parent.
I remember both of mine perfectly, poor old things. They deserved better of me.
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While I am sorry for your loss Alanovic, and fully understand the depth of your feeling on this type of thing, we still have to look at how it is in real life and I'm not just on about driving for a living either.
Sometimes in life the risks seems to outweigh the possible consequences, sometimes it doesn't come off but in reality that is how it is.
That sounds horrible, and I sincerely don't mean it to, so I better stop digging while I can.
All I can say is it's looking at it realistically instead of idealistically, if you understand what I mean.
Shut up Pat.
Pat
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There but for the grace of God.....
As some of you may remember I suffered a coughing fit a few years ago whilst driving my lorry up the M4; started coughing, started to choke (like when a sweet goes down the wrong way) and my vision blacked out. Luckily I remained conscious and slowed the lorry down and pulled over onto the hard shoulder; I was either fortunate or unfortunate depending on your point of view inasmuch as the lorry hit the Armco protecting the bridge pillar just at the bottom of the angled bit, the front wheel jumped it and whilst it kept me off the carriageway it also guided the nearside of the cab smack into the bridge pillar. Heard and felt the bang (estimated speed at impact about 15-20 mph) then my vision cleared. I was unhurt but obviously very shaken.
Police opinion was that I'd done everything right within my powers and had been a bit unlucky to be in the vicinity of the bridge, otherwise i'd have just rolled to a stop and probably no damage. My employer insisted I have another HGV medical, a wise precaution I think; my fear was that I'd had some kind of blackout or TIA but the doctor ruled that out.
He did however ask if I smoked; at the time I was half and half between e-cigs and tobacco. His advice was to give up the tobacco entirely; he said it may not have been to blame for the coughing fit, but giving up should mean that I didn't suffer any more in the future.
I did; and I haven't.
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Yes, Father, 27th May 1983. I was 13. Dunno if I was capable of having a child then, the thought hadn't really crossed my mind so probably not. Grave visit planned this Saturday, the children are always a little puzzled to see the tears in my eyes after all this time but there you go, they'll inevitable understand one day, hopefully later in their lives than my sudden lesson. Time heals? Dunno, it's just a plaster which lifts occasionally in my experience.
I understand where AC and Pat are coming from, there are practicalities to life of course, and sometimes the unintended consequences are tragic. However, I find it remarkably difficult to muster up any sympathy or understanding for someone who hides a medical condition and subsequently takes a life. There are always other options to a driving job, other paths to take.
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I absolutely agree with you Al but I can also see that it must be sometimes hard to admit to yourself (and others) that you are getting older and are less capable than you were. Even more so if you are the breadwinner.
I'm not sure people would always think much more than that, they don't always consider other potential consequences.
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I expect you're right smokie.
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I can fully understand your feelings Al. Fortunately, I was a little older than you, 21, when my father died suddenly. We were very close, 'boys' weekends away together, and I took it very hard. My poor old Mum went to pieces and never had a close relationship in the past almost 40 years.
Nothing wrong with emotions, and still missing people many years later.
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"Time heals? Dunno, it's just a plaster which lifts occasionally in my experience."
That's a very interesting metaphor, Al.
Everyone deals with loss, bereavement or whatever it is, in their own way, and their experience of it and the aftermath is unique to them.
But the concept that it "goes away", or gets forgotten is not, in my experience, what happens.
Even when the brunt force of the event itself softens, it is still there and those who experienced it will have been irrevocably changed by it.
That's why one of the worst things you can do is to try and comfort someone by saying, "I know how you feel." Actually, you don't and you can't.
It is up to the judicial system to bring an objective view to bear as regards punishment when something traumatic like this has happened.
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Grief does not go away. You just get used to living with it and coping with it..
Or not.
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A work colleagues husband has recently had an unexpected seizure in the night. Medics have told him he can't drive for 6 months, assuming he doesn't have another seizure in the meantime. It's already making life inconvenient, as he runs a small BMW specialist garage, but he is living with it because he couldn't bear the thought of killing someone by accident even if he survived.
Luckily his daughter has just passed her LGV test, so trips to events in the family horsebox can still continue. He isn't allowed to drive the box for 5 years.
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Whoops - bathtub tom
