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 ...
yeah and the freakin retards say marijuana is harmless.
Even if you could prove some medical benefit to marijuana, smoking it wouldn’t be the delivery method.
Stupid hippies just want to get high
How was he getting the methadone if he is a long-haul truck driver? When you first get on methadone, you have to show up at the same clinic each and every morning, seven days a week, to get your dose. That’s why methadone is known as ‘liquid handcuffs’.
Nothing is 'harmless'. Not water, not food, not anything. This person should be tossed into prison for the rest of his natural life regardless of the substances he was impaired by at the time of this incident.
L
It's a TSA background check and you only have to do it if you are getting a Hazmat endorsement on your license.
I didn't think you could hold a CDL if you were a convicted felon. Maybe he was just driving intrastate.
wow.... this reminds me though. Did we ever find out who the driver was in the amtrack truck crash in the middle of no where?
Everyone knows marijuana is a harmless substance.
Well . . . don't they? . . . hello? . . . anyone? . . .
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/gallery?section=news/local&id=8224298&photo=3
The cab is still there, you can see the door frame from the photo of the front of the truck. The birds eye shows whats left of the rest. Looks like the tractor used the Ford as a bumper.
In a just world, this POS stoner crook would be dangling at the end of a rope by the end of the week.
*But* cigarettes *must* be banned.
That deadly second/third/fourth hand smoke kills people, you know.
Hypocrites.
[am I the only person who’s noticed that pot has *smoke* too?]
Oh my!
Nope...that’s in the past..it can now be dispensed in tablet form.
Back in 1997, one of my good friends and his son were killed in a head on collision much like this one. The big rig driver who crossed over into the wrong line on a two lane highway was on methadone. He got seven years in prison and is out and enjoying life now while my friend and his 14 year-old son were sentenced to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
L
Calling Ron Paul
I haven't, either . . ...
. . . . and
. . . . .and the perp:
The semi had to have rear-ended the pickup when it was stopped?!?
Anyhow, what a mug shot. This poor guy is ----ed.
It occurs to me that it's within your power to rectify that situation if you wanted to badly enough.
Big Whoop.
ALL drugs fall under the DUI laws.
The guy was on LOTS of drugs...and so why don’t we make alcohol illegal too.
STOP the War on Drugs...no one said marijuanna is always “harmless”. NO ONE should be driving under the influence.Period.
the problem here is enforcement of Truck Driving regulations..your argument that the problem is the marijuanna avoids real enforcement of safe truck driving.
I am against anyone driving under the influence..alcohol, drugs, fatigue, etc. And I don’t want to continue with the SWAT teams, the total waste of billions of dollars of my tax money under a WOd that has FAILED..
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