Thread by @chrisvanderveen

Let's talk about a story you might think you know a lot about...

yet you probably don't know this.

THREAD

In 2019, a semi going 85 mph and loaded with lumber collided with car after car after car on I-70.

The driver said he lost his brakes. You know all that.

1/

#9news

You also likely know that four people died that day.

At least ten others were injured.

The crash happened April 25, 2019, on I-70 near Colorado Mills.

2/

Last month, @GovofCO got involved when he reduced a 110 year prison sentence to 10 years for the driver of the truck

The 110 year sentence for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos became the subject of a national outcry re: harsh sentences

Rogel, for his part, apologized at sentencing.

3/

And yet... little has been said about the company that hired Aguilera-Mederos.

His CDL was less than a year old.

And appears to have little, if any, experience driving in mountainous terrain.

Here he is nearly running another truck off the road minutes before crash

4/

Turns out, the company that hired Aguilera-Mederos was fined, after the crash, $10K by US Dept. of Transportation

why?

Well, in part, it "did not ensure this entry-level driver received required training prior to operating"

It also didn't background him well

(see below)
5/

Castellano 03 Trucking wasn't much of a trucking company.

It owned one truck (the one that crashed)

It was also based out of the home of a Houston woman named Yaimy Galan Segura.

6/

(google pic)

We now also know this... thanks to a 2019 deposition Yaimy Segura had with a Texas attorney

Much of what Segura did to learn how to start a trucking company came via the internet after talking to a neighbor.

7/

"Did you consult any professionals?"

"No"

8/

When she was asked why Aguilera-Mederos was even on I-70 that day...

she said he shouldn't have been driving that route

9/

Earlier that day, he arrived in Saratoga, Wyoming, via I-80.

He picked up lumber and could have gone back the same way (relatively flat)

Instead he went south.

Here he is in Granby. Tailgating another driver.

10/

Why did he go this way?

During an interview with investigators, he said he was looking for cheaper gas on I-70.

Again, the owner of the company never knew he went this route.

11/

Bill Bailey was 67. His wife, Gage Evans, and brother, Duane Bailey, feel defeated by the system that allowed a one-person operation to get insured... use an inexperienced driver... and then get hired to do a job by a broker that didn't know much about who they were hiring.

12/

Prosecutors say Aguilera-Mederos overused his brakes, underused downshifting, and caused his brakes to fail that day.

The company that hired him dissolved after the crash.

There is MUCH more to this story

We'll start to tell it tonight @9NEWS at 9 and 10.