Truck driver watching porn sentenced in fatal N.Y. crash

Thomas M. Wallace, center, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in the December 2009 Thruway crash that killed Julie I. Stratton. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)

The Associated Press

9/2/2010

BATAVIA, N.Y. — An Ohio truck driver whose laptop computer was streaming pornography when his rig hit a disabled car on the New York State Thruway has been sentenced to three-to-nine years in prison for killing the other driver.

Thomas Wallace of Brook Park, Ohio, pleaded guilty in May to second-degree manslaughter. Authorities say he'd slept no more than four of the 27 hours before the Dec. 12 crash that killed Julie Stratton, a 33-year-old mother of two.

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The 45-year-old trucker tearfully apologized to the victim's family at Wednesday's sentencing. He had faced five to 15 years in prison.

Stratton hit a deer and her car was disabled in the passing lane shortly before Wallace's tractor-trailer ran into it from behind in Pembroke, 20 miles east of Buffalo.

Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at barbkampbell@thetrucker.com.

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