"Oh, you mean a democrat?"
Posted on 07/02/2011 7:43:08 PM PDT by Former Fetus
DURHAM -- State troopers say the driver of a tractor-trailer was under the influence of marijuana and methadone when his vehicle caused a crash on Interstate 40 that killed three people Thursday.
Ronald Eugene Graybeal, 50, is in the Durham County jail after being charged with driving while impaired and three counts of felony death by vehicle.
Graybeal, of 306 Elena Lane in Newport, Tenn., is a convicted rapist and burglar, according to court records.
He was driving a truck owned by an East Tennessee company that has been cited for dozens of violations related to fatigued drivers and unsafe driving, according to federal inspection records.
The accident killed the drivers of three other vehicles: John Paul Llanio, 38, of Kannapolis; Barbara Boda Caldwell, 64, of Mebane; and Gary Dwayne Smith, 45, of Burlington.
Emergency workers transported a fourth motorist, Reginald Keith Thompson, 49, of Greensboro, to Duke Hospital, where he was treated for injuries not considered life-threatening, said 1st Sgt. Jeff Gordon, a Highway Patrol spokesman.
Troopers searching Graybeal's truck found the drugs and drug paraphernalia, Gordon said.
Graybeal's tractor-trailer was traveling west on the interstate, near the U.S. 15-501 overpass, when it collided with a Ford F-250 pickup truck driven by Llanio. The tractor-trailer then crashed into a 2008 Chevrolet Equinox driven by Caldwell.
After that, the tractor-trailer slammed into a car that burst into flames. The car, burned so badly that troopers could not determine its make and model, was occupied by Smith, Gordon said. The tractor-trailer continued on before striking a truck that was driven by Thompson, Gordon said.
Graybeal is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, Gordon said.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/02/1316002/drugs-found-in-drivers-truck.html#ixzz1R0NqigCc
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
“Duh, the last I heard, it was and is law, that all companies have random drug tests for CDL holders.”
That may or may not be true, but 2 of the last 3 companies I worked for never tested me once I was hired. Just because there’s a law doesn’t mean a thing if it’s never enforced.
As for the other job, I was never tested there either, but I heard of several who were so I give them a break.
When they said a small company from east Tennessee I wondered who, I could not see a name on the truck, but the couple of trucking company owners I know have white trucks. Still do not know how a guy with his record got a job.
Careful - pot is much like booze in its effects. It's not the substance so much as the person who uses the substance that causes problems. Your argument about it not being harmless because some of the people who use it cause harm is the same argument that those who would take our guns away use - we say guns are harmless and it's the person who uses it and they point out that because they can be used for harm makes it wise to confiscate them...
I used to agree with you, but immersion in political "discussions" over the years has taught me the importance of consistency in defining what one stands for. If I agree with one set of actions, the n I have to agree with those that use the exact same principle, even if it entails something that I don't like. Else, I become a cherry-picking enigma that is all over the spectrum and holding to no definable set of principles.
The VA. Very closely monitored. For pain. They have only veterans, so they can closely monitor this...but let me check further to see if it is in patches, not pills form. I could be wrong about the tablets.
It is sometimes used as opposed to oxycodone. I will check further. thanks for your response.
Very articulate post...and excellant use of logic.
Thanks - it sucks to have your world-view shaken, but it’s part of growing up and deciding who you are. From your tag, I would guess we might be of similar ages and have lived through much of the same political upheavals - I was born in ‘52.
He'd gone in for what was supposed to be a relatively simple operation to remove a small piece of his colon. They screwed that up and he ended up with a massive abdominal infection. He went in the weekend after Thanksgiving and didn't get out until after Easter.
After over 4 months and 4 operations, he was having withdrawl from all the morphine they'd given him.
Methadone is much more likely the problem in this crash. The junkie probably “nodded off,” just like they do on heroin.
Yeah, ha.
We are in a good group though...ie, David Horowitz, who hung out with the Black Panthers, etc and now is a leading conservative voice ( Frontpage website ).
the good thing about being an ex hippie politically is that we know all their talking points and have the legitimacy of “Yeah, man, I was there “..ha. ha. there is nothing worse than an aging Hippie with long ( this time gray) hair in a ponytail still saying the same stupid stuff.
Back about a decade ago when I guess the company owned those fancy red rigs I was driving on the tail edge of bad ice and snow storm in Western Iowa about 5 AM headed west when an England rig blew past me. I told myself, “twenty minutes and I’ll see that one in a ditch.” Yep, he balled it up in the median’s ditch.
Don’t know, but I know about a couple years ago a woman driver from Utah all cranked up came up on a construction area doing about 55mph and the only thing that stopped her truck were the bodies.
"Oh, you mean a democrat?"
And alcohol falls under open container laws.
Big whoop, yourself.
"STOP the War on Drugs"
While we're at it, let's stop the war on C store stickups, pedophilia, and murder. That should knock the bottom out of the crime rate.
Your point?
My point was quite clear. Second sentence; “The junkie probably “nodded off,” just like they do on heroin.”
Which leads one to what conclusion?
That he was asleep, or in a trance state, when he caused the wreck.
Yepper - twisting the same principle to suit personal opinion would make me very similar.
Thanks for the Bob Hope reminder - I have that clip saved on my computer - priceless.
The only surprise here is that the trucker wasn’t on meth.
Their argument is that it makes you driver BETTER because it relaxes you. Didn’t work out for this guy (or the people that he killed).
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