Boycott Begins As Petition Demanding Release of I-70 Crash Trucker Nears 3 MILLION
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EXCLUSIVE: Trucker Plans Two-Day Rally Demanding ‘Justice’ For Driver Sentenced to 110 Years in Prison
EXCLUSIVE: Trucker Boycott of Colorado Growing As Grassroots Trucking Activists Join The Cause
Denver, CO — Many in the trucking community are expressing outrage in the wake of what they believe was an unjust outcome in the case of the trucker who this week was sentenced to 110 years in prison.
In what is being called #NoTrucksToColorado, a growing number of truckers are vowing to boycott all load pickups and deliveries in Colorado in response to 25-year-old Cuban immigrant Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos receiving effectively a life-sentence for his role in a fiery 2019 crash along Interstate 70 which claimed the lives of four people and severely injured six others.
Truckers are largely coordinating the boycott on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
New video shared to these platforms purportedly shows a long line of trucks pulled off along the side of the roadway as a gesture of solidarity with Mederos.
You wanna do some real damage to the economy? Mess with truck drivers. They are boycotting the state of Colorado after the #RogelAguileraMederos verdict.
We need this nation wide pic.twitter.com/lx8ZuwhBhk— alex 🇲🇽 (@r8dr4lfe75) December 16, 2021
#DONTDRIVECOLORADO IF YOU DRIVE A BIG RIG DO NOT ENTER TO COLORADO!! #JUSTICEFORROGERAGUILERA #JusticiaParaRogerAguilera #NoTrucksToColorado 🚫🚫🚫🚫🚚🚚🚚
— H2 🇲🇽🇲🇽 (@MrTigre_jr) December 17, 2021
#NoTrucksToColorado this is the movement!!! I’m so happy to see the support for this young man!
— jay (@sallimonychiile) December 16, 2021
In response, the Colorado Motor Carriers Association took to social media to call out those calling for a boycott.
“Feel for driver. #NoTrucksToColorado has some info that is not accurate. Not mech. failure – brakes gave way due to inexper. driver traveling in mtns above posted speeds/ not gearing down – overheated brakes gave way. He knew of hot brakes yet bypassed runaway truck ramp,” the group wrote.
Feel for driver. #NoTrucksToColorado has some info that is not accurate. Not mech. failure – brakes gave way due to inexper. driver traveling in mtns above posted speeds/ not gearing down – overheated brakes gave way. He knew of hot brakes yet bypassed runaway truck ramp.
— Colo. Motor Carriers (@ColoTrucking) December 16, 2021
Others view the boycott as an opportunity to make some extra cash.
“I suggest truckers and new truckers take every load available going to and from Colorado,” wrote Taj Jameson. “There’s a strike of #notruckstocolorado and it’s the perfect time to make extra money for the holidays. Let them protest for their criminal and let us make money.”
I suggest truckers and new truckers take every load available going to and from Colorado. There’s a strike of #notruckstocolorado and it’s the perfect time to make extra money for the holidays. Let them protest for their criminal and let us make money #colorado #rogelaguilera
— Taj Jameson (@JamesonTaj) December 16, 2021
Petition Demanding Release Nears 3 MILLION Supporters
The response to the sentencing within the trucking community and beyond has been deeply impassioned with many now demanding Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) grant clemency to Mederos who, in October, was convicted on 27 criminal counts by a Jefferson County jury.
As Transportation Nation Network (TNN) reported on Thursday, a petition launched on Change.org urging Gov. Polis to intervene surged in the hours after the sentencing was handed down earlier this week.
The petition is astoundingly now nearing 3 million signatures making it one of the most successful ever on the platform.
At a press availability this week, Gov. Polis confirmed he was aware of the petition’s momentum.
“We review all clemency applications,” the Governor commented. “We’ve yet to receive one from the individual.”
James Colgan, Mederos’s attorney, has also told multiple local and national media outlets he intends to file an appeal of the case as well as a review of the sentence.
Stay logged on to TransportationNation.com for continuing coverage of this developing story.
Photo courtesy Denver7
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Of those so called three million signatures very few are members of the trucking community . As to the threat to boycott that will never happen what few would stand up would be outnumbered by those that would not I being one of the would nots. I do not believe that the again so called driver should spend the rest of his life in jail I believe that he deserves the electric chair. Save the tax payers from feeding and housing him. He did the crime now pay the price. I watched the video many times and he passed right by two well marked escape ramps without any attempt to use them. If only he had perished in the crash he would not be on subject.
So when this tragic event happened, scores of people were calling for justice when video came out of him from both cdot and eyewitness not even attempting to hit the runaway ramp, and proven there was no “mystery truck” blocking his egress to the ramp. Now there’s a petition to get him clemency?!