While many trucking accidents do take people’s lives, the fact is that a number of these are ruled accidents for various reasons, and they do not always see those most responsible put in prison. However, in the case of a man from Wallingford, Connecticut, this is not the case.
On December 19, 2010, Angel Alvarado was driving a dump truck while high on PCP, commonly and ironically referred to as Angel Dust. A powerful drug known for altering perceptions, it is absolutely not safe to take while operating any vehicle, let alone one of the heaviest classes of semi truck.
Alvarado plowed into a vehicle containing Sharon and Dale Wilson. Amazingly, the accident did not kill them — it did however severely change their lives.
Once a happy and engaged young woman, and her daughter’s best friend, Sharon does not remember a single thing about her life before the accident. She struggles with forming new memories, and her entire life up to the current point is a blur that she cannot sort through. She has had to rebuild her relationships with her daughter, husband, and son.
Dale did not have it quite that badly, but he has suffered all the same. He suffered extensive body and head trauma as a result of the accident. Once an outgoing and active superintendent of schools in his area, he is now undergoing extensive physical and mental rehabilitation, and is in bed every evening by 7 pm according to his son.
The judge in the case, saying that society has enough problems without adding in people who drug themselves up so much as to not be able to control their own actions, sentenced Alvarado to 5 years in prison, with the sentence to be suspended after two and a half years have been served. Sharon and Dale’s children agreed to the reduced sentence as part of a plea bargain so they could spare their parents the ordeal of a full trial.
