Posted on 07/09/2011 1:53:57 PM PDT by Morgana
An Illinois man is being held at the Christian County Jail after a tractor-trailer he was driving hit a horse-drawn buggy, killing a young Amish girl and injuring three members of her family Friday night on Fort Campbell Boulevard, police said
Mark Bohms, 52, is being held for murder, operating a vehicle under the influence, criminal mischief and three counts of assault, according to the Christian County Jail’ s website.
A Kentucky State Police drug recognition expert evaluated Bohms, who drives for Schneider National Carrier based in Green Bay, Wis., at Jennie Stuart Medical Center and suspected Bohms of being under the influence of some kind of drug. Blood and urine tests are pending and could take several weeks, according to a Hopkinsville police report.
The accident occurred at 8:30 p.m. in the northbound lanes between Interstate 24 and Crenshaw Boulevard, which is the entrance to the Wal-Mart Distribution Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at kentuckynewera.com ...
If he could not shift over quick enough he was moving too fast, or he was too impaired to shift in time.
Blood and urine tests are pending and could take several weeks...
WTF? Are they using a mule powered chromatograph?
By all means, let’s legalize drugs! Everybody knows the war on drugs has failed and the police have more important things to do.
Sarcasm/off.
Yeah, really. The family practice office we use can get blood or urine test results in a few hours - a day, at most, for a confirmed bacteria culture.
8:30 PM,Northbound. doesn’t say what direction that stretch of road is. Evening sun could have been in his eyes. Buggy may not have had prominent tail lights. Slow moving buggy.
No excuse. Going too fast to avoid collision. Driver may or may not have been intoxicated. Shock of his hitting
buggy may have made him appear to the police officer to be
under influence of some drug. Lab test will tell. I have followed many Schneider trucks, many times and they were always traveling at a safe speed.
The Amish ppl driving their wagons, buggies and what ever are not required in my home state to have lights,drivers license, wear seat belts, carry insurance,if I were pulling a regular tire wagon behind my car, it would need to be licensed.to use a public road..not so with a horse drawn wagon, the kids and extra adults sit in the back of the horse drawn wagons in plastic lawn chairs, some have open wooden benches to sit on,.the covered buggies, offer no protection... no wonder family members are injured, and you come upon them very quickly in hilly country. I am not condoning this mans action,but in a heavy populated Amish area, it happens too often...as noted by road side markers
You were saying?
If you’re coming upon them very quickly in hilly country, you’d need to adjust your driving accordingly, that and actually follow the set speed limit - bicyclists get hit that way even when wearing very non-Amish reflective clothing, and injured even when wearing all mandated protection.
If the local jurisdiction allows unrestrained children in the back of a wagon, it might be because unlike with automobiles stopping short isn’t much of a risk. Surely a tragedy like this will bring that kind of thing into consideration, after the community just prays for and supports the family as best they can.
Prescription drugs wiser now, so get off your soap box unless you want to go after the doctor who wrote the damned scrip.
Was the buggy in the travel lane of I24? Interstate highways usually have minimum speeds, 45 mph.
The default ahead will solve most of the problem with evil drivers.
I assume I24 is two lanes both directions and divided. The buggy probably was not allowed to be on this interstate highway at all. The article doesn’t say. But until I read your post I was visualizing a shady two lane rural winding road. But near Walmart it must be four lane and a Schneider truck would be unlikely to be on a narrow road.
RIP.
obviously you’ve not driven truck or driven for Schneider. We go where the freight needs to be hauled. Many times on very small, rural, back-roads. This was not that case. I won’t take sides, as it is a trajedy about the child. I can say that I have come over a hill, at or below the speed limit, and despite the small lights on the buggy, was upon it very rapidly. Fortunately, I was able to brake and avoid an accident. I know how slow the buggies are, because other than driving truck, I have driven stagecoach, buggies, and carts. No I’m not over 100! And, Walmart (like others) place their Distribution Centers where the property is cheap - many times, where you wouldn’t expect!
Just FYI - Any drug test for a commercial driver cannot be completed at just any lab. They have to be a certified for doing DOT drug testing (in other words - the government gets big bucks for giving a lab an okey dokey). Since there are only a few of these labs around - it takes longer. They all have to be specially collected, tested, retested, gas chromatographed, not just dipped (maybe mule-powered), etc. Otherwise, they cannot use the test for any prosecution, etc. against the driver.
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