A truck driver has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for a 2015 crash that killed six.
42-year-old truck driver Benjamin Brewer was sentenced to 11 years for each of six vehicular homicide cases in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Monday, March 12th, and will now serve consecutive time for 5 of those cases, totaling 55 years of prison time.
The wreck happened back in June of 2015 on Interstate 75 near the Ooltewah exit near Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to the police reports, prior to the wreck, Brewer was driving unsafely on I-75 through Georgia before crossing the state line into Tennessee, where he then failed to stop for a line of traffic caused by construction near the Ooltewah exit. Brewer then crashed into nine cars with no sign of hitting the brakes, leaving “a 453-foot trail of destruction,” as described by the judge.
Six people were killed in the wreck, and Brewer was found with falsified log books and methamphetamines in his system at the time of the crash, as well as a Wisconsin warrant for a drug charge and a dismissed meth count in Kentucky.
Brewer: “I want families to know that carrying this through life has not been easy and it never will be.”
— Hannah Lawrence (@hannah_NC9) March 12, 2018
“I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. There are no words to express my sorrow,” Brewer said in a statement to the judge.
“I hope they [the families] will accept my deepest apology… I pray for them every day,” he continued.
During the trial, Brewer’s Aunt and his attorney both vouched for his good character, arguing that he is “a good man” with a “good heart,” and that “he’s never tried to hurt anybody…. [this was] not an intentional act, but a reckless accident.” Both said that they pray for Brewer as well as the families involved in the accident.
Because Brewer has no prior criminal convictions, he will be eligible for parole after serving 30% of his sentence, or 16 and a half years.
