Truck Driver That Killed 4 People After His Brakes Failed Gets 110 Years In Prison.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos lost control of his truck on I-70 on April 25, 2019

A truck driver who lost control of his 18-wheeler and crashed into stopped traffic on a Colorado highway in 2019, killing four people, has been has been sentenced to 110 years in prison.

On Monday, a Jefferson County judge handed down the sentence to Rogel Aguilera-Mederos for the crash on Interstate 70, NBC News reports.

On April 25, 2019, Aguilera-Mederos was driving when the brakes failed on his 18-wheeler, which was carrying lumber, KMGH reports. Despite the highway having truck ramps, Aguilera-Mederos, then 23, didn’t take a runaway and instead crashed into stopped traffic.

Rogel Lazaro Aguilera

The fiery crash killed four people, 61-year-old Doyle Harrison, 67-year-old William Bailey, 69-year-old Stanley Politano and 24-year-old Miguel Lamas Arrellano, and injured several others. During Monday’s sentencing, the court heard from the victims’ families. 

“It’s been difficult, sometimes it feels like being half a person,” Kathleen Harrison, who lost her husband Doyle Harrison, said, KCNC reports.

“He was taken away from me in an instant by the actions of a selfish person,” Juanita Bailey, the mother of victim Bill Bailey, said.

In October, a jury found the truck driver guilty of 27 counts, including four counts of vehicular homicide.

On Monday, Aguilera-Mederos told the court, “It hurts, I ask God too many times why them and not me? Why did I survive that accident?” 

While the judge recognized that Aguilera-Mederos didn’t intend to harm anyone he noted that state law required him to sentence the 26-year-old to consecutive sentences, KMGH reports

“If I had the discretion, if I thought I had the discretion, I would not run those sentences consecutively,” Judge A. Bruce Jones said.

Video Credit: CBS Denver

“I accept and respect what the defendant has said about his lack of intent to hurt people, but he made a series of terrible decisions, reckless decisions,” the judge said.

STORY CRED: PEOPLE.COM

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