Truck Driver Accused In Deadly I-70 Crash Pleads Not Guilty

JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO — A semitruck driver who's accused of causing a deadly crash on Interstate 70 in April has pleaded not guilty. Four people were killed in the fiery crash and several others were injured.

Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, has been charged with 41 counts, including four counts of vehicular homicide and first-degree assault.

Aguilera-Mederos is accused of driving recklessly on I-70 before he crashed into vehicles that were backed up after another crash on the highway.

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Aguilera-Mederos "manifested an extreme indifference to the value of human life," JeffCo District Attorney Peter Weir said in early May.

On April 25, Aguilera-Mederos was seen driving his 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 slammed into stalled traffic near the Colorado Mills Mall, causing a fiery crash that damaged the highway and kept the road closed for more than 24 hours, authorities said. 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, the Jefferson County Coroner's office said. Nearly a dozen other people were injured.

The trial for Aguilera-Mederos, who is from Texas, is set to begin May 1. The 23-year-old is free on a $400,000 bond.