March 13--BLOOMINGTON -- The driver of a semitrailer truck that hit a Hudson firefighter was traveling too fast and should have moved away from a line of emergency vehicles, a state trooper testified Wednesday at the driver's reckless-homicide trial.
Mansur Shakirov is charged with causing the death of Chris Brown, a Bloomington firefighter who was on duty as a Hudson volunteerfirefighter at the accident scene where he was killed.
Brown died on March 5,2013, on Interstate 39 near Hudson when the semi struck him as he stood outside a Hudson command vehicle.
Illinois State Police Lt. Kevin Hoop told a jury that his investigation concluded that Shakirov's 74,000-pound truck was responsible for "too much energy entering that crash site."
The driver also failed to comply with Scott's Law, a mandate to slow down and move over when approaching stopped emergency vehicles.
The state police witness said he is surprised two other Hudsonfirefighters survived the rear-end crash to their vehicle.
"That instantaneous movement of the human body is deadly," said Hoop.
The driver told police "he saw a truck in front of him and he began braking. He said he tried to stop and couldn't," according to earlier testimony from Illinois State Police Master Sgt. John Dittmer.
The truck hit the Hudson command vehicle and set off a string of collisions that damaged an ambulance, a fire truck and a state police squad car.
The trial was recessed Wednesday in the midst of testimony from State Trooper Chris Parmley after the state prosecutors John Shim and Joshua RInker asked for more time to edit a video of the crash scene taken by the trooper's dashboard camera.
Defense lawyer Chris Gramm asked that a longer version of the video be played for the jury.
The state is expected to end its case Thursday.
It is not known if Shakirov will testify. If he doesn't the jury could begin deliberations Thursday after closing arguments.
