Dad shoots, kills Dept. of Corrections truck driver who fatally struck son, police say

[haele]

198. Driver is dead, because he stopped.

We don't know what really happened because the driver is dead, only the father now has a say.
As posters who know the area indicate, that stretch of road has curves and hills. And it's posted for highway speeds, not a school zone. A driver cannot expect a child in the middle of the road, period. Even slowing down 10 miles an hour or so coming over a hill or coming around a curve, at highway speeds, there's simply no way to avoid something small that suddenly appears in the middle of the road after cresting a hill or coming out of a blind curve.

A 3 year old is small, just like the dog that suddenly appeared in front of me coming around a curve one morning in a residential area one morning when I was going to work. I was going 20 miles an hour and still bumped her as I hit the breaks. Luckily, she wasn't hurt, just startled - but she was in the middle of the lane and not visible at all until I came out of the curve and she was about 15 ft. In front of me.

Look, one of my grandkids was a runner until she was around five. When walking anywhere, especially in a parking lot or along a road, we have had to to keep a good grip on her or she would run out into the road just to pick up a leaf that caught her attention. We also made sure an adult was always between her and any traffic.

The kid shouldn't have been hit. But then again, a three year old should also never be in a traffic lane where he could be hit because a driver coming up behind him might not see him over the hood of a truck coming over a hill.

Parents were just as much responsible as the driver for that child's death. And the father is totally responsible for the driver's death.


Haele