Driver gets 110 years for Colorado accident

Discussion in 'Truckers News' started by pumpkinishere, Dec 14, 2021.

  1. TallJoe

    TallJoe Road Train Member

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    I get it. I just argue that his own fear of losing his own life.could have made him just as much incapacitated on his body and mind.
     
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  3. 4wayflashers

    4wayflashers Heavy Load Member

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    He’s 26 years old.

    What age does one become a man in your version of reality?

    It’s coddling and making excuses for those who never except there should be harsh consequences for bad decisions that got our culture where it is today.

    He’s 26 years old.
     
  4. TallJoe

    TallJoe Road Train Member

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    You're right, he is not a kid, even if he was, they showed him otherwise, he will be old when gets out, if ever.
    Be careful on those passes too, you never know what sort of death sentence a few seconds of distraction may bring about. I mean it to anyone.
    I once jackknifed in Wyoming too, 14 years ago, nobody got killed or injured so I am lucky now to type this from my living room, not a prison cell. Hell, I am terrified now, after reading the posts of some of you, to think when I would get out.:eek::eek:
     
  5. fairshake

    fairshake Road Train Member

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    Good riddance son of a b.
     
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  6. rank

    rank Road Train Member

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    Well this is interesting....

    Rogel Aguilera-Mederos Gets Emotional During His Testimony In Trial For Deadly 2019 I-70 Crash
    “Aguilera-Mederos testified that he struggled to get his semi into gear when he lost his brakes as he headed down the foothills and crashed into traffic.

    When asked on the stand, “Did you try to get it into any gear?” Aguilera-Mederos responded with tears and said, “I apologize.”.....

    “....The defense has painted a picture of Aguilera-Mederos, things happening so quickly he didn’t know what to do, and that he was a victim of a mechanical brake failure.....”

    “...Well, I had no brakes going downhill… I was afraid I was going to hit someone, I was afraid I was going to hurt someone because I was unable to stop the truck.”
     
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  7. rank

    rank Road Train Member

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    “Aguilera-Mederos, who was just 23 at the time of the crash blamed malfunctioning brakes for the accident. Admittedly inexperienced in mountain driving, he said he performed necessary steps like stopping to inspect his brakes before embarking on the final dangerous stretch of eastbound I-70 before the crash occurred.

    He had driven into Colorado from Saratoga Wyoming, traveling along Highway 40, where he had to traverse Berthoud Pass. Under direct examination, Aguilera-Mederos testified that once he’d made it beyond Berthoud Pass, he stopped to use the bathroom and inspect his brakes, making calls to more experienced drivers (his brother and his boss) to tell them he was on a dangerous route and to get their advice before continuing.

    Witnesses in the case said they’d seen the brakes of the truck smoking along that stretch of Highway 40.

    But Aguilera-Mederos refuted those accounts and eye-witness testimony from earlier in the trial, that he had been driving recklessly or speeding in the hours leading up to the crash.

    Aguilera-Mederos said the truck’s brakes were functioning fine at that point and that only later, while driving down a steep grade on the west side of Genesee Hill, did he realize they had stopped functioning. According to his testimony, he was also unable to shift the truck’s transmission into a lower gear in an attempt to slow it down.

    He told the jury the last thought he had before the crash was “dear God, don’t let anything bad happen.”

    Much of the expert testimony during the trial focused on signs of “glazing” or extreme wear to the truck’s brakes. Prosecutors believes aggressive, reckless driving caused the inexperienced driver to burn through his brakes, precipitating the deadly collision.

    In closing arguments, Prosecutor, Kayla Wildeman made the case to jurors that beyond causing the brakes to fail with his reckless driving, Aguilera-Mederos had several opportunities to avert the deadly accident, but didn’t act on any of them.

    She said choices he made even moments before he crashed his truck into cars backed up on the freeway were designed to save himself with little regard for victims of the crash.

    “He swerved into a sea of cars that were sitting ducks, with nowhere to go,” she said. “What else was going to happen except for death and people being injured?”

    Wildeman closed by calling Aguilera-Mederos out for not rushing to the aid of the victims after the crash.

    “He was knocking on doors asking for phones so that he could call his brother to come and pick him up so that he could leave,” she said.

    In his closing arguments, Defense Attorney, James Colgan, said he was going to speak from the heart instead of presenting his written remarks. He said over the last year he’d re-read the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird a couple of times, recalling its subtext of fairness and equality in the American justice system.

    “Only in America, does a man who speaks Spanish, is an immigrant from Cuba — can he expect to get a fair shake from a jury.” he said. “This would never happen in another country. Only in America could this happen. But it’s only going to happen if fairness enters the picture.”

    He said people generally see what they look for, and see what they listen for. Continuing with the narrative that prosecutors were branding Aguilera-Mederos a killer, Colgan said his client was not perfect, but was not a killer. He painted a picture of Aguilera-Mederos a young, inexperienced, man overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control. Colgan said witnesses who claimed to have seen his client speeding or driving recklessly prior to the accident were mistaken or were seeing what they wanted to see, in order to try to help solve the case.

    Colgan also laid blame at the feet of Aguilera-Mederos’ boss, Raphael, who told him the truck was in good condition, and to take Highway 40 instead of Interstate 25 into Colorado.

    “He’s a young kid, who’s got a job — his first real job as a truck driver — and he trusts his boss,” Colgan said. “Raphael said the truck was ok. When Raphael said don’t take Highway 287, don’t take I-25, the defendant said, okay, he’s my boss. That was his biggest mistake is that he trusted him (Raphael).

    Colgan said Aguilera-Mederos did everything he knew how to do, to stop the truck. But everything failed. And that just because he didn’t choose to commit suicide by driving his truck into an underpass in an attempt to stop it, it didn’t make him a killer.”
     
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  8. Bean Jr.

    Bean Jr. Road Train Member

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    It surprises me how many here are expecting a guy who has never driven mountains before to know what to do and not panic! He most certainly does not get a pass, but this sentence is not justice.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2021
  9. rank

    rank Road Train Member

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    “Wildeman also questioned Aguilera-Mederos about why he did not take a runaway truck ramp that he passed after he lost his brakes, and asked him to explain why he continued driving after he pulled over to check his brakes after coming off Berthoud Pass. She focused on his actions well before the fatal crash, including witness testimony that he was driving recklessly in the hours beforehand.

    Aguilera-Mederos said he saw the first two signs for the truck ramp — at 1 1/2 miles and 3/4 miles before the ramp — but said he did not see the last two signs for the ramp. He testified that he had not lost his brakes until after he’d passed the first two signs for the ramp. He added that he had always seen runaway truck ramps that go uphill, not downhill like the ramp he passed on I-70 heading toward Denver.

    He testified that he believed his brakes were in working order after he stopped at Berthoud Pass and called his boss and another trucker for advice.

    If the brakes were working fine, why did you call two different people to help you?” Wildeman asked.

    “Because they were two people who had much more experience than me,” Aguilera-Mederos said. “That’s not wrong.”

    Some of Aguilera-Mederos’ testimony contradicted testimony from other witnesses. Wildeman kept a list of the contradictions on a large piece of paper pinned to an easel beside her throughout his hours-long testimony.

    “There were several people who took the stand and told you they saw your brakes smoking, right?” she asked him.

    “What I am trying to tell you is that I never saw that and I never saw the brakes smoking,” he said. “I was paying attention to many things. I never saw them smoking.”

    The trial, which is in its third week, will continue Friday with closing arguments before the case goes to the jury.“
     
  10. rank

    rank Road Train Member

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    Judge said after some time passes he can appeal to have the sentences run concurrently instead of consecutively.
     
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  11. bryan21384

    bryan21384 Road Train Member

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    The part where he trusted his boss, is interesting. I went and looked at the route from Saratoga. His boss thew him to the wolves but also inadvertently. This was the blind leading the blind to the max. I don't think his boss had any more experience going to Colorado than the driver. I couldn't understand why he didn't come down 25. For the driver to male phone calls as much as he did, he definitely was clueless and green. It's easy to Monday morning quarterback and say shoulda, coulda, woulda, but most of the regular members on here are far more experienced, with at least a decade or more out here. Others may have less than 10 years but I think after 5 years, that's when it starts to click.
     
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