INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A truck driver was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison for causing a highway construction zone crash in Indianapolis that killed a woman and her 18-month-old twin daughters.
A Marion County judge ordered the prison term for Bruce Pollard, 58, of Sturgeon, Missouri, after he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to reckless homicide and other charges for the July 2019 crash.
Pollard was driving a semitrailer that prosecutors said was going 65 mph and didn't begin to break until the truck hit the first of several vehicles slowed for an Interstate 465 construction zone on the city's north side.
The crash killed 29-year-old Alanna Norman Koons of Indianapolis and her daughters, June and Ruby Koons. They were trapped inside their burning car after it was hit by the semi, which hit five other vehicles before coming to a stop, police said. Seven people in those vehicles were taken to hospitals with injuries.
Prosecutors said Pollard was caught falsifying a medical record and had lied to his employer by failing to disclose that bad driving got him fired from his previous job.
Defense attorney Jack Crawford said Pollard should not have been driving but needs treatment for mental illness, including diagnosed cognitive disorder.
