GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — A truck driver accused of causing a fiery pileup that killed four people on a Colorado interstate has pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide and other charges.
KDVR-TV reports 24-year-old Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, of Houston, appeared in court in Jefferson County on Thursday to answer to charges stemming from the April 25 crash on Interstate 70 west of Denver.
He has said the brakes on his semitrailer failed before he plowed into slowed traffic just after the interstate descends from the mountains, setting off a 28-vehicle chain reaction of explosions from ruptured gas tanks. The truck was going about 85 mph (137 kph) on a stretch where commercial vehicles are limited to 45 mph (72 kph).
Prosecutors say Aguilera-Mederos tried to flee the scene and showed “extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
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Information from: KDVR-TV, http://www.kdvr.com
