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Report: Bus crash driver had DUI history

WOODLAND, Calif. (UPI) -- The driver of a bus that crashed last week in California, killing eight people, had a drunk driving record and fell asleep at the wheel, authorities allege.

Quintin Watts, 52, was behind the wheel when a casino-bound bus carrying 41 passengers he was driving drifted off a highway near Williams, Calif., and crashed, authorities told The Sacramento Bee. In addition to the eight killed, 35 others were injured in the mishap.

Watts, who was upgraded to fair condition at Woodland Memorial Hospital in Woodland, Calif., was under arrest on a charge of driving under the influence, police said.

He was described by the Bee as a down-on-his-luck former truck driver and parolee who was hired to drive the bus by his stepfather, the owner of the charter bus company.

The newspaper said it was Watts' first time piloting a bus. His stepfather, Daniel Cobb, 68, was among the fatalities of the crash.

"The driver was falling asleep, and (Cobb) was trying to wake the driver up," said Liw Saechao, Cobb's business partner. "Daniel grabbed the wheel and tried to put the bus brake on, and it was too late -- it was already flipping."



Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 10/07/2008
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Posted Comments:

10-08-2008 09:38
Anon wrote:



It's Collyfornia, baby! The governator will do something if you give him enough tax dollars!



10-08-2008 08:59
fishinjunki wrote:

bus driver

I think this a**hole should get the death penalty. I agree with MOLLY that the penalties for DUI in this country are far too lax.I believe that if there is a death associated with a DUI that they should be charged with first degree murder, since they did in fact make a decision to get drunk and then drive. Some say that they shouldn't have to pay for the rest of their lives for a mistake, but I say they should get whatever their victems got. I feel that if someone dies as a result of a DUI, then the deat penalty should be imposed. Harsh? Yes it is , but not to the survivors of the ones that were murdered by their inability to deal with life, or for whatever reason that they were drunk to begin with.



10-07-2008 22:50
mollyrambo57 wrote:

drunk bus driver

when in god's name are they going to start making the penalties harsher for drunk drivers, this jerk was on parole and driving a bus, where people were crossing state lines, going to be boozing it up at the casinos and expecting that the designated driver, [bus driver] would be sober, the penalties for drinking and driving in this country are far too lax, in tuscola county a man with 34 DWLS CONVICTIONS AND WAS ON HIS 8TH DRUNK DRIVING CONVICTION THIS TIME WITH SERIOUS INJURIES WAS GIVEN A 1 YEARS SENTENCE IN THE COUNTY JAIL, 6 MONTHS SUSPENDED, HAD ALREADY SERVED 4 MONTHS, SO THE DAY I SAW HIM IN THE COURT ROOM FOR HIS SENTENCING HE WOULD HAVE HAD 2 MONTHS LEFT TO SERVE, TALK ABOUT A JOKE, THE MAN WHOSE WIFE WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED SCREAMED AT THE JUDGE THAT THE SENTENCE WAS NOTHING BUT A JOKE AND I HAVE TO AGREE WITH HIM, I THOUGHT THIS WAS A FLUKE UNTIL I STARTED CHECKING THE COURT NEWS IN THE TUSCOLA COUNTY ADVERTISER IN CARO MICHIGAN, AND WAS VERY SAD TO FIND OUT THAT THIS WAS THE NORM FOR THAT TYPE OF OFFENSE, just this last week an 18 year old got drunk, ran a stop sign, t-boning a car with a man and a very pregnant woman in the car, the man was seriously injured, the woman was critically injured and the baby was killed as the sharp metal of the car sliced his mothers womb oopen threw him out of the womb and the little boy bled to death and it took the jaws of life to remove her from the car, the 18 year old was taken to our local hospital he was treated and released to the jail, the babies mother is still in a drug induced coma because of the imense pain she would be in otherwise and to allow her to heal as much as possible, i wonder if this one will even get prison time, with the courts in this county who knows




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