Daniel Tschetter, Be a Man

Sometimes its worthwhile discussing something on the best nothing. In this case, something disgusting, disheartening, and repulsive.

The back story from cbc.ca...

A concrete truck driver charged with killing five people in a Calgary rear-end collision testified that he's a longtime recovering alcoholic who's had a "couple of slips here and there."

Daniel Tschetter, 51, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of manslaughter, five counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count of obstruction in the deadly crash in December 2007.

It's a horrific story, a whole family wiped out in an instant. This is not a simple story of an accident gone bad. What makes this so disgusting is this guy has come up with every excuse in the book to account for his actions.

In short, his defense is that because his wallet may have been lost or stolen, because he was a recovering alcoholic, because he was in a rush, and because he had to worry about gages in his truck, he should be excused from any responsibility for driving a heavy vehicle erratically, speeding, not yielding to warning lights of an upcoming red light, running a red light, and killing a family of five.

Oh, and let's not forget he had a slew of past traffic violations and had been fired from a previous job for these digressions.

And the cherry on top, unbelievable:

He recalled wanting a drink of water, so he reached under his seat and took a drink from a bottle, before realizing it was vodka, Tschetter said.

...

Tschetter said he returned to his truck, climbed to the top and threw the bottle of vodka into the drum, because he didn't know what to do if people saw him with the container.

"What do I say, what do I do?" he testified.

Under questioning by his lawyer, Balfour Der, Tschetter explained the vodka bottle was in the truck so he could offer drinks to staff at concrete suppliers to get to the front of long lineups.

Excuses. You don't kill five people and go "oops, my bad." You take fucking responsibility. You don't make shit up about accidentally drinking vodka. You would have to think everyone is out of their fucking minds to believe that. Batshit crazy. Who is going to know what a bottle of vodka is or isn't. That's right, an alcoholic. He would have had to crack the seal on it (assuming it wasn't already open, which he would have to claim it wasn't). I feel insulted by this comedic testimony.

And the lack of responsibility after trying to hide the evidence doesn't stop there. He refused to submit to a breathalyzer. Was he worried about blowing .08 after a sip of vodka? It might not be fair, but I'm not on the jury, I'm going to read between the lines.

It makes me sick to my stomach I read about new developments in this story. And it makes me even sicker to hear that this jackoff Daniel Tschetter is trying to worm his way out of it.