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North Carolina semi driver reports to Trumbull jail for 2012 I-80 fatality
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Robert Lucarell II said it took his family “a lot of work” to see the criminal case against North Carolina truck driver Richard A. Pacholski result in Pacholski’s being locked up Monday to serve a 30-day jail sentence.
Pacholski, 63, received the sentence for falling asleep at the wheel of his tractor trailer July 5, 2012, on Interstate 80 in Girard, crossing over the median and crashing into a pickup truck coming the other way driven by Robert Lucarell Sr., 62, of Hubbard, killing Lucarell.
At the time of the crash, Pacholski was taking seven prescription medications for congestive heart failure, allergic asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other health problems, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. He also took aspirin and used inhalers and nasal spray, he told investigators.
“And he admitted that he was tired hours before he killed my dad,” Lucarell II said. “There’s no way he should have been driving a truck.”
When an investigator asked Pacholski whether he felt tired before the crash, he said, “Yes. I had just eaten lunch.” The highway patrol said Pacholski left Indiana at 6:30 a.m. that day — seven hours before the 1:26 p.m. crash near U.S. Route 422. Pacholski said he had stopped three times along the way.
Judge Jeffrey D. Adler of Girard Municipal Court sentenced Pacholski to his jail term in April, after Pacholski pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
But Pacholski appealed his sentence to the Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals, which dismissed the appeal in September. Pacholski remained free while the court heard the appeal.
But once the appeal was over, Pacholski’s attorney told Judge Adler Pacholsky was recovering from cataract surgery and suffering from numerous health disorders, as well as taking numerous medications.
“The court, while cognizant of the [defendant’s] health concerns, is of the position that [he] must eventually serve his sentence,” Judge Adler said in a court entry.
In November, Judge Adler gave Pacholsky 10 weeks to recover from surgery and report Monday, which Pacholski did.
Lucarell II said the family has endured so much anguish over his father’s death — because his father was such a good man and because Pacholski has shown no remorse.
“My father would still be here today if [Pacholski] had just had the good sense to stop,” Lucarell II said. “What a horrible injustice it would have been if he’d have just gotten a fine,” he added.