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Anon · 08-07-2006, 21:45

It's so fkin wrong

He killed her, and for what? For nothing. For the sake of getting his jollys from some late night text messages. Beyond contemptuous, beyond redemption.

And what was he doing whist awaiting scentence?
http://archive.wiltshiregazetteandhe...19/129619.html

To some degree, the courts eventually woke up:
http://www.respectforpeople.org/news000.asp

Driver's jail term doubled
Commercial Motor, 16 June 2005, p14

Russell Ellis, who was jailed for eighteen months in December 2004 for killing a woman whilst asleep at the wheel has appeared at the Court of Appeal to have his sentence doubled. "The offender must have known he was deprived of adequate sleep and rest. Making allowances for all the circumstances, in our view the appropriate sentence is one of three years' imprisonment," ruled Lord Justice Gage.

It's something, but here's something else.
Here's something that's total supposition, but in all honesty make plenty of sense:
The guy was deprived of sleep, dehydrated; not quite with it.
It was reported that his lorry veered accross the road at 45 degrees before it killed Em. The corner in the road that shortly follows the site of the crash is of a similar angle. The driver had stated "stupid cow tried to come accross me". Due to his refusal to get out of the cab it could be assumed that this statement was part of the shock and denial. But just maybe he actually believed it.
Remember that next corner? What if he had believed that he was already at that corner. From his perspective, he would be on the correct place in the road, just rouding a corner as he would have done many times before, so it would have appeard the a car had "come accross him".
What could cause this? Certainly not tiredness alone.
Recent research (see Liao & Cheng (Cheng-Chi Univ.[China]) or Duke University [USA]) shows a link between stimulants (such as Cocaine and d-Amphetamine) and a distorted perception of time. Rats injected with d-Amphetamine in one experiment showed a huge difference in time perception compared with a control group. Their internal clock was running faster, they performed a pre-conditioned time based response more frequently and importantly, earlier than the time to which they'd been conditioned.
Had Mr. Ellis (and I say again this is pure supposition) taken such a stimulant in an attempt to offset his sleep deprivation, then it is concievable that he would have made the action to turn the corner before he normally would, before he had reached the corner. Due to the effect of sleep deprivation and dehydration, any concious counter response to this action would be sevearly impaired, if not disabled. In this scenario, Mr. Ellis would have been awake at the time of the crash.

http://www.thebikezone.org.uk/motorcarnage/current.html
(contains a case where caffiene as a stimulant was implicated in an unexpected RTA)

The only way to prove such a theory would have been propper testing at the time of the crash.

I believe it should be routine practice to test for drugs in drivers in RTA's particularly in those that appear tired and even more so for proffessional drivers for especially for stimulants.

Why would I come up with this? It seems quite improbable to me that a sleeping driver could cause a LGV to reach 45 degree steering angle, due to:
the low gearing between the steering wheel (makes it easier to steer but takes more steering lock to acheive a steering angle than most smaller vehicles),
and the upright position of LGV steering wheels;
a combination of which makes it unlikely that the slumping of a driver as they fall asleep would result in anywhere near the required steering angle and an absolute maximum of less than half a turn of the wheel.

.... . . . .

08-07-2006, 21:45	#11
Anon cf.member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Somerset Age: 26 Posts: 2	Re: All he got was 18 months?? It's so fkin wrong He killed her, and for what? For nothing. For the sake of getting his jollys from some late night text messages. Beyond contemptuous, beyond redemption. And what was he doing whist awaiting scentence? http://archive.wiltshiregazetteandhe...19/129619.html To some degree, the courts eventually woke up: http://www.respectforpeople.org/news000.asp Driver's jail term doubled Commercial Motor, 16 June 2005, p14 Russell Ellis, who was jailed for eighteen months in December 2004 for killing a woman whilst asleep at the wheel has appeared at the Court of Appeal to have his sentence doubled. "The offender must have known he was deprived of adequate sleep and rest. Making allowances for all the circumstances, in our view the appropriate sentence is one of three years' imprisonment," ruled Lord Justice Gage. It's something, but here's something else. Here's something that's total supposition, but in all honesty make plenty of sense: The guy was deprived of sleep, dehydrated; not quite with it. It was reported that his lorry veered accross the road at 45 degrees before it killed Em. The corner in the road that shortly follows the site of the crash is of a similar angle. The driver had stated "stupid cow tried to come accross me". Due to his refusal to get out of the cab it could be assumed that this statement was part of the shock and denial. But just maybe he actually believed it. Remember that next corner? What if he had believed that he was already at that corner. From his perspective, he would be on the correct place in the road, just rouding a corner as he would have done many times before, so it would have appeard the a car had "come accross him". What could cause this? Certainly not tiredness alone. Recent research (see Liao & Cheng (Cheng-Chi Univ.[China]) or Duke University [USA]) shows a link between stimulants (such as Cocaine and d-Amphetamine) and a distorted perception of time. Rats injected with d-Amphetamine in one experiment showed a huge difference in time perception compared with a control group. Their internal clock was running faster, they performed a pre-conditioned time based response more frequently and importantly, earlier than the time to which they'd been conditioned. Had Mr. Ellis (and I say again this is pure supposition) taken such a stimulant in an attempt to offset his sleep deprivation, then it is concievable that he would have made the action to turn the corner before he normally would, before he had reached the corner. Due to the effect of sleep deprivation and dehydration, any concious counter response to this action would be sevearly impaired, if not disabled. In this scenario, Mr. Ellis would have been awake at the time of the crash. http://www.thebikezone.org.uk/motorcarnage/current.html (contains a case where caffiene as a stimulant was implicated in an unexpected RTA) The only way to prove such a theory would have been propper testing at the time of the crash. I believe it should be routine practice to test for drugs in drivers in RTA's particularly in those that appear tired and even more so for proffessional drivers for especially for stimulants. Why would I come up with this? It seems quite improbable to me that a sleeping driver could cause a LGV to reach 45 degree steering angle, due to: the low gearing between the steering wheel (makes it easier to steer but takes more steering lock to acheive a steering angle than most smaller vehicles), and the upright position of LGV steering wheels; a combination of which makes it unlikely that the slumping of a driver as they fall asleep would result in anywhere near the required steering angle and an absolute maximum of less than half a turn of the wheel. .... . . . .