Trucker Kills 4, NOT Charged
Posted on December 20, 2007
Filed Under IN THE NEWS
Dimitrios Tseperkas crashes into stopped traffic on the NJ Turnpike, August 14, 2006.
Well, this is the flip side of what I keep preaching. I keep saying, “if you get in a big crash, and you don’t have your ducks in a row, you’ll go to jail”. Well, not always. August 14, 2006, Dimitrios Tseperkas slams into stopped traffic on the NJ Turnpike. He kills 3 people in the car he hit, then flips his trailer full of bricks onto another car, killing a fourth. He was estimated to be doing 70 MPH in a 55 zone, and had 4 out of 10 brakes out of adjustment at the time of the wreck. According to the newspapers, Tseperkas also was suspended at the time of the wreck for unpaid tickets, and had been involved in 7 accidents in the past 15 years.
The State of New Jersey elected not to charge him with anything more than careless driving. He ultimately ended up paying a fine of……. wait for it……. $234. I’ve had bar tabs higher than that. Here’s what the Bergen Record had to say about that.
Oh, but it gets better. The Turnpike Authority filed suit against Tseperkas in an attempt to collect money for the damage he caused to the Turnpike. But they also named 3 of dead people Tseperkas ran over in the lawsuit! So that’s how it goes in New Jersey. Get killed by a speeding truck, and then get sued for the damage your crushed car caused to the road after you’re dead. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, watch the guy who killed you walk away scot-free.
For the record, the state of New Jersey said it was all a big mistake to sue the deceased. Yeah right, it was a big mistake after somebody made a big deal of it. If nobody had spoken up, New Jersey certainly wouldn’t have caught the mistake. As for the driver in the wreck, I guess the moral of the story is this: if you’re going to kill people in a truck due to your own negligence, make sure to do it in a place where the prosecutors and the police don’t do their jobs.
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