Truck Driver Sentenced to 5 Years in Cockeysville Woman's Death

A Pennsylvania truck driver was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for the 2010 vehicular death of a Cockeysville woman.

from a family reunion in Ohio when her vehicle was struck by a triple-trailer truck. The driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel. She was killed in the August 2010 accident and her then 12-year-old son Matthew was left permanently disabled.

"I have not dealt with it," said Ed Slattery of his wife's death in a December interview with Patch. "I'm afraid it would debilitate me."

The driver, who The Baltimore Sun identified as Greenville, PA resident Douglas Bouch, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of aggravated vehicle assault, according to a news release from the Truck Safety Coalition. He was sentenced in the Portage County Court House in Ohio on Thursday.

Ed Slattery was part of a group that campaigned in Washington, D.C. in late November to limit the amount of service hours for truck drivers to a maximum of 10 hours a day. The attempt was unsuccessful, and the hours of service rule remained at 11 hours a day, according to John Lannen, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, a citizens' organization dedicated to reducing the number of truck related accidents and fatalities.

"While nothing can bring back my wife or restore my son's complete health, I want people — the motoring public and truck drivers alike — to know that our roadways are not as safe as we believe them to be," Ed Slattery said in the coalition's press release. "I want truck drivers to know that when they are pushed to surpass these already excessive driving hours, they — and not the companies — may personally wind up paying the price of jail time, or even worse."

Ed Slattery that he wasn't angry with the driver that caused his wife's death but wanted Congress to consider safety issues over the interests of businesses employing the truck drivers.