http://www.wral.com/apncnews/5419935/detail.html

BUTLER, Pa. -- The sentencing of a Bosnian truck driver who caused a fiery 2003 wreck that killed a vacationing North Carolina family was postponed Monday after a translator called in sick.

Ejub Grcic, 57, pleaded guilty in September to five counts of involuntary manslaughter in a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid deportation. Grcic also pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful activities for driving a commercial vehicle while unable to speak English.

He was scheduled to be sentenced Monday afternoon in Butler County court. But the hearing had to be delayed when court officials couldn't find anyone who spoke Croatian Bosnian. Officials were trying to reschedule the hearing for Tuesday.

State police said Grcic's 16-ton tractor-trailer was too heavy for the road's 10-ton limit when he ran a stop sign and crashed into a car July 7, 2003, at an intersection in Slippery Rock Township, about 45 miles north of Pittsburgh.

The crash killed Kenneth E. Kerr Jr., 35; his wife, Janet, 35; their two children, Kenneth Kerr III and Kathleen Kerr; and Janet Kerr's daughter from a previous marriage, Alessandra Hall. The Kerrs were from Wilson's Mills, N.C.

Grcic, who now lives in West Valley, Utah, was originally charged with five counts of vehicular homicide and had likely faced deportation if he had been convicted of those more serious charges, his attorney said.