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In this photograph of April 26, 2019, workers remove debris from Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colorado, from a stack involving a timber truck trailer that killed four people. The truck driver told the investigators that his brakes were not working. The Texas-based company owned the semi-trailer had two different trucks temporarily taken out of service for brake-related problems in the past year, according to federal safety statistics. (AP Photo / David Zalubowski, File)
GOLDEN, Colo. – Prosecutors on Friday charged 40 counts, including four counts of homicide, against a 23-year-old truck driver, accused of causing an overcrowding. fire that killed four people last week on a Colorado highway.
Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos of Houston "used the vehicle in circumstances where he displayed extreme indifference to the values of human life," said Jefferson District Attorney Pete Weir.
Aguilera-Mederos' lawyer, Robert Corry, called the charges "excessive, duplicates and excessive prosecutions".
The accident occurred on April 25 on Interstate 70 just after his descent from the mountains to the west of Denver. The pileup involved 28 vehicles and multiple explosions. Aguilera-Mederos told investigators that the brakes on his trailer had failed.
The truck was traveling at a speed of at least 85 km / h (137 km / h) in an area where commercial vehicles are limited to 45 km / h (72 km / h), police said.
Police also said that just before the accident, the truck had crossed a roadside ramp, designed to safely stop trucks and other vehicles that had lost their brakes.
The speed truck had a "free and clear path" towards the ramp but was moving away instead, the police said.
The trailer was destroyed in the accident, making mechanical inspection impossible, but investigators were trying to determine if there was any other way to determine if the brakes were working, a Weir said.
Aguilera-Mederos was informed of the charges during a Friday court appearance in Jefferson County Jail, where he remained in custody on a $ 400,000 bail.
The charges against Aguilera-Mederos also include six counts of first degree assault and 24 counts of attempted first degree assault. Of the 40 counts, 36 are crimes, Weir said.
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