LAKE BUTLER, Fla. -- The man driving the tractor-trailer that slammed into a car full of Lake Butler children waiting for a school bus more than two years ago has pleaded no contest to seven counts of vehicular homicide and 10 counts of culpable negligence.

Trucker Gets 7 Years For Union County Crash

The car was struck Jan. 25, 2006 on state Road 121 four miles south of Lake Butler as it waiting for an unloading Union County school bus. The car caught fire and all seven children inside died.

Several of the children on the bus and the bus driver were injured.

The truck driver, Alvin Wilkerson, of Jacksonville, was charged with seven counts of vehicular homicide and numerous other charges.

After Wilkerson entered his plead on Thursday afternoon, Circuit Judge Maurice Giunta heard victim-impact statements before sentencing Wilkerson to seven years in prison -- a sentence worked out in a plea agreement between prosecutors in Gainesville and Wilkerson's attorney, Hank Coxe.

"Parents should not have to bury their children. It is not natural. It goes against the cycle of life," stated one letter read on behalf of Terry and Barbara Mann, who lost four children in the wreck.

Most of the family and community members were too upset to speak and had attorneys read their statements, but Mary Murphy, who had two children injured in the crash, talked and told the court how she felt about the seven-year sentence.

She said her children were thrown from the school bus and continue to recover, but she said the students would never be the same.

"There's not any word that could ... the pain that my children have been in. They're only kids, and now they've got to live with this for the rest of their lives too," Murphy said. "Not enough. I believe there isn't enough time for what he did. But, we're not the only ones suffering. His family is too."

Wilkerson, 33, spoke in court, apologizing to the family and saying he gets by with God's help.

"I'm not a heartless person. I'm not a heartless person … you can say anything … please don't look at me as a heartless person," Wilkerson said through tears.

Prosecutors said Wilkerson had driven a tractor-trailer for 34 hours with only a brief nap before the crash.

"I have no question that he is sincerely sorry for what he did, just like I have no question that he never intentionally meant to hurt much less kill anybody or any of these kids. The fact that he put himself in a position to do it is what legally causes him to be going to prison," said state attorney Bill Cervone.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wilkerson was hauling bottled water from High Springs to Jacksonville and there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol in his blood.

The NTSB refused to say whether Wilkerson violated trucking laws by driving more than 15 hours without an eight-hour rest period.

In addition to the criminal case, a parent of two of the children killed in the crash has filed a lawsuit against Wilkerson and the company he was driving for, Crete Carrier Corp.

Officials said 15-year-old Cynthia Nicole "Nicky" Mann -- the oldest of the children killed in the crash -- was driving the car illegally because she only had a learner's permit. Investigators said she had picked up her younger siblings and cousins from school and were going to church.

Union County Sheriff Jerry Whitehead has said there was no indication that she did anything that contributed to the accident.