Driver sentenced to 11 years for Colo. crash that killed family of five

A truck driver convicted of killing five family members after crashing into their car in stopped traffic has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for the fatal crash. 

Jesus Puebla was sentenced to 11 years in prison on June 21st in Weld County, Colorado for a wreck that occurred back in June of 2022. 

Puebla was driving a commercial vehicle for Caminantes Trucking and was hauling USPS mail when he smashed into the back of a car stopped in traffic on Interstate 25 in Weld County. Investigation revealed issues with the brakes prior to the crash, but investigators also determined that Puebla had been driving recklessly in the moments before the wreck as well. Caminantes Trucking did not have insurance on the truck and attempted to purchase some less than an hour after the crash. 

In March of this year, Puebla was convicted of five counts of vehicular homicide, one for each person killed, and one count of vehicular assault for a man in another vehicle who was hurt in the wreck but survived. Weld County District Judge Allison Esser sentenced Puebla to two years for each of the vehicular homicide charges and one year for the vehicular assault charge, reported 9 News.

“This was reckless driving in a 20,000-pound truck – you had a responsibility to our community,” Esser said. “There was never going to be a fender bender.”

“Jesus is a hardworking man who was just trying to make a living for his family,” Norberto Puebla Gallegos, Puebla’s brother, said. “He is a good person who would never mean to hurt anyone.”

“I’m so sorry this happened, and I never meant to hurt anyone,” Puebla said during a brief statement to the court.