A truck driver was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a 2014 crash that killed five people in Channahon, Illinois.
The incident happened back on July 21, 2014, when 53-year-old Indiana truck driver Francisco Espinal-Quiroz entered a construction zone on Interstate 55 with his cruise control set at 65 mph and crashed into three vehicles that were traveling at only 5 mph. Five people, between ages 11 and 64, were killed in the accident.
Last November, after more than 2 years in prison, Espinal-Quiroz pleaded guilty to five charges of reckless homicide and one charge of falsifying his logbook.
He admitted to incorrectly recording that he started driving at 5:15 a.m., even though he actually started driving at 1:15 a.m. Despite the falsified logs, he was only on-duty for seven hours when the accident occurred — under the legal allowable driving hours.
On Thursday Will County Judge David Carlson sentenced Espinal-Quiroz to 10 years in prison.
Judge Carlson acknowledged that Espinal-Quiroz didn’t wake up intending to cause harm to anyone, but he wanted to issue a strict enough sentence in order to “send a message to other truck drivers to follow safety regulations,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
Espinal-Quiroz will receive credit for 2 1/2 years of time already served.