Truck driver in the accident that killed 7 Oregon agricultural workers is sentenced to 48

Salem, hours. -A truck driver who killed seven agricultural workers when he crashed into a 5 -parked utility vehicle in Oregon was sentenced to almost 50 years in prison.

Judge of the Circuit Court of Marion County, Daniel Wren, sentenced Lincoln Smith to 48 years and 3 months, Oregon’s public broadcasting reported.

He was convicted in February for seven accusations of second -degree murder and three accusations of attack, as well as reckless leadership. The jurors paid the 54 -year -old Californian under the influence of intoxicants.

Confessing to the trial, Smith said that the effects of the drugs he took one night before the accident was worn out and shook his head. The traces of methamphetamine, fentanel and morphine were found in his blood after the accident.

The accident, one of the most mortal of the state, happened in May 2023. Smith’s Semitruck entered a utility vehicle carrying 11 agricultural workers that were parked on Part I-5 near Albany, in an agricultural area of ​​the Willamette Valley.

The victims were identified as Juan Carlos Leyva-Carrillo, 37 years; Gabriel Juarez-Tovilla, 58; Alejandra Espinoza-Carpio, 39 years; Eduardo Lopez-Lopez, 31; Luis Enrique Gomez-Reyes, 30; Alejandro Jimenez-Hernandez, 36 years; and Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30.

Smith asked for apologies in court, saying that if he can change his life for any of the victims’ lives, it would be, KGW-TV reported.

Albany is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Portland. I-5 is the main North-South intersality on the west coast.