Trucking Boss Gets 12 Year Sentence for Driver Death
Trucking boss jailed for more than 12 years over driver death. IMAGE SOURCE: abc.net.au
The boss of an Adelaide trucking company has been jailed for more than 12 years over the death of driver Robert Brimson due to faulty brakes, without the possibility of parole for the first 10 years.
The 56 year old trucking boss was found guilty of manslaughter over the fatality which took place in March 2014.
The tragic 2014 incident took place when the driver acted to avoided heavy traffic on Main South Road at Happy Valley shortly before his heavy vehicle slammed into a pole.
The jury convicted the boss of endangering the life of another driver, Shane Bonham 2 days prior to the fatal crash.
The trucking operator was apparently continuously warned about the truck’s faulty brakes but because he himself was a “risk taker” on the road he thought such a brake failure would be easy to survive.
Before the Supreme Court, Justice Peek who resided over the case quoted from a psychological report during the hour-long sentencing.
Just Peek described the convicted boss as a “narcissist” with “misplaced arrogance and self-confidence” especially regarding his driving abilities.
The trucking boss made the following statements to a psychologist,
“I can bet you though that 10 to 1 that I’d still be sitting here talking to you if I did drive the truck that day,” Colbert said.
“I don’t expect people to do what I can do with a truck.
“The truth is most of the blokes I deal with have no skill.
“To be honest I’m still trying to figure out why he [Mr Brimson] hit the post … I wouldn’t have gone near that.
“It’s instinct, you’ve either got it or you don’t.
“But he did save other lives so I can’t knock the bloke.”
Source: http://www.abc.net.au
Justice Peek found it particularly disturbing that the defendant continued to deny having knowledge of the truck’s faulty brakes. He also maintained that no one under his employment had brought the issue of the faulty brakes to his attention prior to the fatal accident.
Justice Peek found it concerning that the man thought of himself as a “thrill-seeker” on the roads, speeding from Adelaide to Melbourne in just 6 hours.
The judge read the final words of Mr Brimson which were recorded by a dash board camera before the crash took place.
“Oh [expletive] brakes,” Mr Brimson said.
“Where am I gonna [expletive] go.
“I’ve got nowhere to [expletive] go.”
Source: http://www.abc.net.au
There were serious maintenance concerns with the truck, with the court hearing that it was used 5 days a week and had more than 800,00km on the clock when Mr Brimson was killed.
