Although grievously injured with several broken bones Tracy Morgan is expected to survive although his recovery is expected to be long. His co-passenger James McNair "Jimmy Mack" in the "limo" bus was killed. And a total of four were injured.
Apparently the truck driver failed to compensate his speed for road and traffic conditions and struck the bus Morgan was in flipping the bus.
Truck driver Kevin Roper, 35, was charged with one count of death by auto and four counts of assault by auto.
The truck driver charged in the crash turned himself in to police, and was released on a $50,000 bail Saturday night.
Roper was a driver for Walmart.
"This is a tragedy, and we are profoundly sorry that one of our trucks was involved," Bill Simon, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., said in a statement.
"The facts are continuing to unfold. If it's determined that our truck caused the accident, Walmart will take full responsibility."
My understanding is that the days of letting truck drivers on the road that are sleep deprived are gone. (I also understand this is wishful thinking) that there were protections in place to ensure drivers remained alert and ready to do their job.
Now that I see this person worked for Walmart, knowing they are corporate pirates, I can not help but wonder.
If he worked for them as a truck driver, a skilled profession with the requirement in most states of weeks of training. And licenses and certifications, including physicals, paid for usually by the driver. Why wasn't he getting enough sleep to work for them? If he was working other jobs why isn't Walmart paying this essential part if their retail scheme the wages to ensure they do their job correctly? This isn't a door greeter but a trained professional.
The drivers logs if they were kept correctly should be in order. The size of east coast states should, if the driver passed state lines, have ensured that logs were kept in order due to weigh station checks. But some companies have caught on and keep their drivers from passing state lines here in the west in order to subvert this effort to police the rest requirements of over the road drivers.