HOUSTON — The driver who caused a deadly 28-vehicle pile-up that ended in flames on a Colorado highway Thursday is from Houston, Lakewood police confirmed Friday.
Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, has been charged with multiple counts of vehicular homicide in connection with the Thursday crash, which shut down Interstate 70 near Lakewood, Colorado, for hours while crews worked to extinguish the massive resulting fire.
Four people were killed when the 18-wheeler Aguilera Mederos was driving crashed into slow-moving eastbound traffic around 4:50 p.m., officials said.
Six people were rushed to area hospitals by ambulance. Good Samaritans took other injured victims to the hospital.
Police say Aguilera-Mederos was speeding when he collided with another semi, setting off the chain-reaction crash.
"We have to try and figure out why this happened," Lakewood Police Department Agent Ty Countryman said. "The semi coming into the slower traffic. There's got to be a reason. We'll investigate and find out."
A local YouTuber that goes by the name "Burger Planet" captured the moment a semi sped by him toward where the accident took place.
Sky9 video showed piles of lumber on the highway, multiple semi-trucks and at least two SUVs on fire beneath a bridge over I-70. That structure is closed to traffic, and the Lakewood Police Department said it is "believed to have suffered heavy damage."
Aguilera-Mederos is originally from Cuba but is in the U.S. legally on a green card, according to Lakewood police.
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