Trucker Given 4 Years in Deaths of 3 Dutch Tourists at I-5 Checkpoint

Truck driver Neil Adams was sentenced Tuesday to four years in state prison in the deaths of three Dutch tourists last September. They were killed when he rear-ended their vans which were slowing for the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5 at San Onofre.

Superior Court Judge Anthony C. Joseph said the sentence was the toughest he could mete out and then stung the long-haul trucking industry for tolerating practices that he said led to the accident, which left 19 other persons injured.

Adams, 34, was under the influence of beer and methamphetamines at the time of the crash and was traveling at about 58 m.p.h. when he slammed into the back of a slow-moving van carrying half of the touring Dutch group, heading back to Buena Park after a day of sightseeing in San Diego. That van was then catapulted into the second van, carrying the balance of the tour group of traveling musicians.

“If substantial numbers of long-haul drivers rely on methamphetamines in order to make a living and drive in stretches of 36 hours, that’s pretty frightening to the average motorist,” Joseph said.

The deadlines faced by long-haul drivers, and the reported use by them of drug stimulants, “is putting people at risk, not one at a time but in the tens,” Joseph said, referring to Adams’ case.

Adams, who lives in San Jose, pleaded no contest in April to three counts of vehicular manslaughter, but the San Diego County district attorney’s office said it was unable to charge him with gross negligence, which would have increased the prison sentence, because Adams showed no signs of reckless driving before the crash itself.

Prosecutors had hoped Adams would be sentenced to five years, four months in prison, based on the maximum sentence of four years in prison for one count and the maximum eight months for each of the other two counts, to be served consecutively.

But Joseph said he could not invoke the finding of aggravation to justify both the maximum possible sentence of four years as well as to order that all three sentences be carried out one after the other.

Joseph said he could either sentence Adams to the mid-term sentence of two years on the first count and eight months on each of the two remaining counts--and then order them served consecutively for a total of 40 months--or sentence Adams to the maximum 48 months in prison on the first count, and 16 months for each of the other two counts, but to be served concurrently.

“The court is not unmindful that three persons died in this accident . . . visitors to our country,” Joseph said. But he further noted that Adams had a clean record except for three prior speeding violations.

Among those in the courtroom was Newport Beach attorney Richard Bridgford, with the law firm of Hamilton & Samuels, which is representing the surviving Dutch victims and their families in a civil lawsuit against Adams and his employer.

Bridgford was not allowed to speak at Adams’ sentencing but presented to Joseph 17 pages of statements summarizing the emotional and physical conditions of the survivors.

“They came here with high expectations and dreams of a memorable experience. They left in coffins or in casts and wheelchairs, and those that survived will carry physical and emotional scars for the rest of their lives,” the document read.

Adams’ attorney, Robert Camacho, said his client would be eligible for parole in two years and was satisfied by the sentence.

He characterized his client’s crash as not unlike a motorist who looks into his rear-view mirror at the moment traffic in front of him slows down and suggested that Adams’ use of methamphetamine was intended to keep him more alert on the freeway.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Walter J. Donovan argued that any effect the stimulant may have had on Adams was counteracted by his consumption of beer.

Adams, who had been out on bail, was immediately handcuffed and led out of the courtroom after being denied a request to remain free until his sister’s wedding Saturday.