A truck driver who killed a Stevenson University professor, and severely injured her son, was recently sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary in Ohio.
The truck driver, 49-year-old Douglas Bouch of Greenville, Pennsylvania, was driving a Mack freight liner and hauling three trailers on the Ohio Turnpike just outside Cleveland in 2010. Bouch fell asleep, lost control of the rig, and slammed into the victim's vehicle-killing her and condemning her son to a wheelchair. The truck accident caused 80% blood loss and serious brain damage to the young man.
The husband/father of these victims is now fighting for legislation that would require truck drivers and trucking companies to regulate the amount of time a driver can travel in a single shift. The surviving son and his father went to Capitol Hill to tell their story and to testify in the subcommittee on regulatory affairs. The hearing's proceedings were about arranging and implementing a new Department of Transportation law that would significantly increase the amount of time commercial truck drivers must sleep between shifts.