![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/1a19dfffe4414ea2b676a9ae4fb9ddbc.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The vehicular homicide trial for a Texas trucker who lost his brakes on Interstate 70 while descending from Colorado\u2019s high country and caused a 28-vehicle crash that killed four people will start Friday, more than two-and-a-half years after the fiery wreck.<\/p>\n
Truck driver Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, now 25, faces 41 charges in connection with the incident, including both assault and vehicular homicide. He’s\u00a0facing decades in prison if convicted of all charges.<\/p>\n
On April 25, 2019, his semitrailer full of lumber barreled down Interstate 70 at speeds topping 85 mph, swerving and forcing other vehicles off the road before running into standstill traffic under a bridge near Colorado Mills Parkway in Lakewood.<\/p>\n
The crash caused multiple explosions and very intense fires as the lumber in Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 rig mixed with spilled gasoline and ignited. The fires brought temperatures on the highway\u2019s surface to more than 2,500 degrees.<\/p>\n
Four people were killed — Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 24, William Bailey, 67, Doyle Harrison, 61, and Stanley Politano, 69 \u2014 and six others injured.<\/p>\n
Survivors detailed the horror of seeing a truck barrel into stopped traffic, the terror of burning metal and screaming commuters. Others remembered being pulled from their cars by good Samaritans and carried to safety.<\/p>\n
Aguilera-Mederos, who escaped with minor injuries, missed multiple runaway truck ramps on his way down the steep stretch of interstate, video taken by witnesses shows. Prosecutors said Aguilera-Mederos, who was 23 at the time, tried to apply both the truck\u2019s brakes and its emergency brake, with no effect.<\/p>\n