Before his truck slammed into backup traffic, Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos thought he was going to die and closed his eyes. This started a huge fatal fire in Colorado. On Thursday, the semi truck hit 28 cars that killed four people and injured many others. Rogel at age 23 is held 4 accounts of vehicular homicide. At court on Saturday the judge set his bond at $400,000. The investigation is still going on so formal charges have not been set yet. Investigators say he claimed he was driving 85 mph on the interstate when his brakes failed so he tried pulling over but couldn’t because other semi trucks were already pulled over. The document states, “Rogel said he thought he was going to die so he closed his eyes before hitting the stopped traffic.” A witness told the police before the crash he saw Rogel wide-eyed. Everybody agrees that it was an accident including law enforcement. Authorities had no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the crash. Investigators are now looking into see if there were mechanical issues with the truck.
1. Do you believe that this crash was an accident or on purpose?
In some ways it does seem like that this was on purpose because why would he say he closed his eyes thinking he was going to die when a witness said he didn't. But everyone including authorities and law enforcement had said it was an accident.
2. What would you do if you were a bystander at the scene of the crash?
If I were there when the crash happened at first I would be very confused and scared if I saw a semi truck going towards parked traffic at high speeds and not slowing down. It would be very scary and shocking but I would call 911 immediately and make sure nobody else would be in danger of the fire.
Replies
Well done Caitlyn!
I don't think the crash was on perpose but I do get why some people would think it is because he closed his eye and didn't try and swerve to miss the people if there was anyway to do that. I would be shocked and wouldn't know what to do.
The only way this would have been on purpose is if somebody manipulated the brakes, but I believe that this was completely an accident. I would be shock because that would have been terrifying and loud to see/hear the impact of a semi going 85 mph.
I agree with you but I do not think that anyone would purposely mess up the brakes because that is very uncommon. This was just a shocking accident and I would have been terrified if I had seen it happen.
I dont believe he did it on perpose I think that the brakes did go out and he had no aother way to stop the truck so he just let it coast until hitting the car I think he told the court he closed his eyes so they dident think if he had his eyes open he did it on perpose
If i was a bystander I would call 911 and try to ask as many people as possible to see if there ok
I think that is was an accident, because its easy to speed. If I was in his position I would of closed my eyes. If I know something is about to happen that will hurt me I close my eyes. I would call 911 and see if the injured are awake.
I also agree with you Chloe. This is very common because the main reason big crashes like this happens is when the driver is not paying attention to their speed and then they get out of hand and don't know what to do.
I think that the crash was an accident because I do not believe that Rogel would actually want to hit 28 cars to kill or injure people. Accidents are becoming more common on interstates as the vehicles are going much faster and there are way more things that can become distractions to drivers than there were in previous years. I would immediately call 911.
I agree with you because I think it is very inhumane like for someone that would want to purposely drive into parked traffic and hit that many cars and kill people. Unless there was mentally something wrong with him but then he wouldn't be allowed to drive a semi truck.
1) I am not really that sure, it is really hard to tell. I kinda believe how people would think that it was on purpose, but I really don't think that anybody would do this. I think that this was all a mistake.
2) If I was there for the crash I would first start off by seeing if everybody was okay. Also, I think seeing something like this would probably put you in shock. I would then try to calm myself down.
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