Trucker charged in Highway Crash Killing Three Children
Jorge Romero, an Apple Valley trucker was charged recently with three misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter for allegedly ramming into a minivan on a Mission Viejo freeway, killing three children in the May 4 crash on the San Diego (5) Freeway near Oso Parkway. The children were ages, 5, 4 and 2 years old.
Jorge Romero is accused of crashing his truck into the back of the minivan, driving through the back seat where the three small children were sitting. The family was returning home from a day at Irvine Spectrum, where they had been celebrating the five year-old's birthday.
The trucker allegedly came up behind the van at a speed of about 60-70 mph in a tractor-trailer carrying electronics weighing in excess of 40,000 pounds.
Unfortunately, this tragic California truck accident only adds to the fuel of truck statistics and truck safety on the highway. According to the organization, Truck Safety Coalition, in 2005, the most recent year that U.S. data is available, more than 5,200 people were killed and another 114,000 were injured in truck crashes. The Truck Safety Coalition study found that 22 states had truck death crash rates higher than the national average of 1.76 in 2005.
This does little to ease the pain of the surviving loved ones that have tragically lost family members in tragic truck crashes. All we can do is hope that the trucking companies that hire truckers will enforce safety first to their drivers. Maybe if stiffer penalties and fines were in force for breaking safety rules, they would give the message and learn that large trucks share the roadway with smaller vehicles that carry passengers.
Click Here to read more about this truck accident story in KNBC News.
