Deadly I-70 Crash: Truck Driver Found Guilty

JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO — A semitruck driver who crashed into more than two dozen vehicles in 2019 was found guilty Friday of vehicular homicide and other charges.

Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos was driving an 18-wheeler in Lakewood when he crashed into the stopped vehicles and four semi trailers on Interstate 70. Four people were killed and nearly a dozen others were injured.

A jury found him guilty of 27 counts, including four counts of vehicular homicide.

Aguilera-Mederos was driving the truck, a flatbed loaded with lumber, around 85 miles per hour eastbound down I-70, bypassing several emergency truck pull-off areas, police said. He then crashed into vehicles that were backed up after another crash on the highway, prosecutors said.

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The fiery crash damaged the highway and kept the road closed for more than 24 hours. He told police that the brakes on his truck failed and he feared rolling his semitrailer, so he didn't pull off the highway.

The victims of the crash were identified as William Bailey, 67, of Arvada; Doyle Harrison, 61, of Hudson; Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 24, of Denver; and Stanley Politano, 69, of Arvada.

Aguilera-Mederos' sentencing is set for Dec. 13.