(DailyVantage.com) – A newly married couple and the mother of the bride were killed and two other family members were injured in a crash near Denver, just five days after the wedding, when a tractor-trailer carrying large plastic tubes overturned on Interstate 70 on Thursday, August 15.
Ruben Rodriguez, 33, and his new wife, 37-year-old Juliana Rodriguez, along with mother of the bride Luz Melba Martinez, were killed and two other passengers in the vehicle were hospitalized after the truck went over the median and ended up in the westbound lanes of I-70. The driver of the truck was also hospitalized but was listed in stable condition.
The two other passengers in the vehicle were the couple’s 1-year-old son and Juliana’s father Carlos Joaquin Plata. Both were listed in stable condition.
According to police, the newlyweds’ vehicle was struck by one of the 500-pound plastic tubes as the family was traveling westbound on I-70. The three people injured in the crash were all released from the hospital by Friday.
The groom’s sister-in-law Janell Rodriguez told a local news outlet that the family was driving to the mountains for a vacation/honeymoon at the time of the crash. The bride’s mother had just arrived from Colombia on August 10 to attend the wedding, Rodriguez said.
At least six other vehicles were involved in the crash but no one else was hospitalized.
According to division chief Eric Kellogg of the Wheat Ridge Police Department, investigators are looking into the cause of the accident and the prosecutor’s office was reviewing the case to determine if charges should be brought against the truck driver.
However, because of the size of the debris field, police said the investigation could take several weeks.
Janell Rodriguez told Denver-7 that the family was in shock over the tragic deaths. She said it was hardest on the couple’s young son Daniel who lost both of his parents.
Wheat Ridge Police expressed its sympathies to the families who were “impacted by the tragic loss of life.”
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