alan:
…snip…
The loss of life is of no interest to the courts, …snip…
And that is the most accurate statement made in this thread. 
well a lot of different views on this subject, i only hope that it never happens to me. as you never know whats round the corner. how many times have you been on the verge of nodding off behind the wheel, trying to get that little bit further up the road?.i know i have done it. lack of concentration slower reflexes n all that, it takes a split second to make ONE mistake. and if that mistake is fatal, your life is ruined… so lets all take this as a warning if you like. be safe and dont let us be talking about you … or hoping you go to jail as some would have you do.and let me say deepest sympathy to the family involved…
ohterry555:
well a lot of different views on this subject, i only hope that it never happens to me. as you never know whats round the corner. how many times have you been on the verge of nodding off behind the wheel, trying to get that little bit further up the road?.i know i have done it. lack of concentration slower reflexes n all that, it takes a split second to make ONE mistake. and if that mistake is fatal, your life is ruined… so lets all take this as a warning if you like. be safe and dont let us be talking about you … or hoping you go to jail as some would have you do.and let me say deepest sympathy to the family involved…
Well, I have to agree with a fair bit of what you say there Terry. Most of us just dont appreciate that its about 50% luck that gets us unscathed through the day. I have to be honest, I have strong veiws on law breaking in the industry, its a crock, and at least buggers the job up, at worst kills.
BUT, I have to be honest and agree, I have nodded off behind the wheel, and not even in a remotely law breaking situation, and other times have been right on the wire for time and been fresh as a daisy. Its a tragedy and no mistake, and whatever is done the poor persons family cannot have them back. Any future efforts would be better placed at fixing things so that in future times people might not be so tired.
For a start, I suggest abolishing the reduced rest, 11 hours mandatory, no reductions allowed, or better yet 12, and work 12 or whatever. We got by on it before! But even then, it wont cure all, nothing does really as human nature is prone to mistakes, and like Terry says, lets just hope we aint the next ones to make one!
Mal.
As several have said. do we know all of the facts?
Was the accident a direct result of tiredness or was there some other cause?
If some other cause eg. swerving to avoid another vehicle whilst driving in a perfectly safe and alert condition, then this may have been taken into account resulting in the apparently lenient treatment. It is too prevalent taking some unrelated tragedy as an excuse for heavy handed punishment of non-contributory infringements. For all I know he drove a perfectly legal 10 hours broken by perfectly legal minimum breaks spread over 11.5 hours, slept whilst loading for 2.5 hours then did the (illegal) hour to the to the truckstop. or wherever, comparatively refreshed. (Can you do a 15 spread in UK? You certainly can in France). Such a scenario could apply to many of us from time to time, would we expect to go to gaol just for the hour excess if no fatality was involved?
Would the bloke who caused the Selby rail crash have gone to prison if the original road crash hadn’t been his fault? I don’t think so, despite the loss of life.
On the other hand. If he did 11 hours driving without any good reason and fell asleep, causing death. Manslaughter. Gaol.
There but for the grace of …
Salut, David.
For what it’s worth I have long thought that the driving and working break restrictions were wrongly angled towards spreads and daily rest.
Whatever is done with overall duty, overall driving and minimum rest regulations, 4.5 hours solid driving on boring motorways for mile after mile is too much. But so is the arbitrary break at the end of it, 45 minutes.
Far better to have more frequent, but shorter, rest periods. Say, 10 minutes every hour or 90 minutes.
For my money there is little wrong with wide spreads although 9 must be the absolute minimum daily rest as most people seem to thrive best with 8 hours sleep (not me, I get a headache after any more than 6!) and even that only occasionally as there must be provision for washing, relaxing and eating. In common with most French drivers I prefer at least 2 hours for the evening meal. And I did say, at least!
Salut, David.