[Puffer Fish]

A man was sentenced to 110 years of prison (which would effectively be life in prison) for the accidental death of four people.

The man was the driver of a large truck. At one point the brakes on the truck stopped working, and the truck began rolling downhill out of control.
The man could have been able to steer the truck onto a ramp feature built into the road for runaway trucks, that was designed for this sort of situation, but that did not happen.

Instead the truck passed the turnoff for the runaway truck ramp, and then crashed into several cars.

This ended up causing a large fire. The highway was shut down in both directions for about 24 hours. Those killed were a 24-year-old Hispanic man, and three other men over the age of 60. Several others were injured.

The man's name is Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, the incident happened in Colorado in April 2019.

Several people are petitioning the governor to grant clemency, to greatly reduce the prison sentence.
An appeal is also planned.

It is arguable how responsible this man really is for those deaths.

Apparently the man is being blamed for not steering the out of control truck onto the runaway truck ramp. Why that did not happen, we might never know for sure. It could have just been an error during an unexpected emergency situation.

The man claimed he tried his best to avoid the vehicles stopped on the road, but could not avoid them all.

Investigators said no alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash.

Aguilera-Mederos was convicted of 27 counts, including vehicular homicide. During sentencing, the judge acknowledged that Aguilera-Mederos did not intend to harm anyone. But under guidelines set by the law, his sentence could be no less than 110 years.

"I accept and respect what the defendant has said [...] but he made a series of terrible decisions - reckless decisions," the judge said.


A Colorado truck driver was sentenced to 110 years for a deadly crash. Over 3 million people have signed a petition asking for clemency. - CBS News, Michael Roppolo, December 17, 2021
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rogel-agui ... 20Colorado.

[AFAIK]

Where do you find these poorly written pieces?
The cadence is so repetitive.
They are poorly written.

[Puffer Fish]

The cadence is so repetitive.
They are poorly written.

I apoligise you find my writing poorly written or unpleasant.

I think the reason things are repetitive is that I have tried to separate sentences for simplicity, while still trying to include all the relevant details. I want to be very simple and direct with the facts.

I think there is a little bit of a trade-off between those aims, and the type of writing in a typical journalism article that feels engaging, eloquent, and "well written".
I could of course have just copied directly from the news article, but it would have been much longer. I wanted to try to condense the story into a much smaller piece, sticking to only the relevant facts of the story and being to the point (the point that I wanted to make).

I do have to be repetitive with some of the sentences, otherwise there would be very long sentences with many separate statements running together that would be a little difficult and confusing to read. I don't really see a way around it.

I'm trying to give the reader the needed facts and be "functional", not specifically trying to focus on a "fun" and engaging news story to entertain.

Sometimes I will also repeat things, one in a simplified way, and the other in a more complicated way giving all the details. That type of style can make it easier for people to understand how different things fit together. I want people to be views things systemically and logically, not just automatically use emotional inclinations to judge a story.

[Rancid]

USA! USA! USA!

[Puffer Fish]

USA! USA! USA!

Many parts of the US can be very punitive, harshly holding people "responsible".

But these type of judicial decisions don't happen unless there is a lot of public opinion behind it. If you talk to half the population who lives around where this happened, they would not see any problem with the judge's decision.

[AFAIK]

If you want people to engage with your writing you should make it engaging to read. I could have expressed the same information in a much more concise and succinct manner without alienating readers with tedious and repetitive prose.

A man was sentenced to 110 years in prison for the accidental death of four people.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was driving a truck in Colorado when the brakes failed whilst traveling downhill. He failed to pull into an emergency ramp intended for such a situation and crashed into multiple vehicles further down the road resulting in 4 deaths and multiple injuries.

Or you could be even more concise;

[Rancid]

Many parts of the US can be very punitive, harshly holding people "responsible".

But these type of judicial decisions don't happen unless there is a lot of public opinion behind it. If you talk to half the population who lives around where this happened, they would not see any problem with the judge's decision.

Of course.

Often the opinion on if the punishment is right is based who the perpetrator is, as @AFAIK points out above.