A newlywed couple’s love story came to a tragic end on Thursday morning after a semi-truck overturned on a Colorado highway.
The truck carrying large plastic piping crashed on Interstate 70 in Wheat Ridge, about a 20-minute drive northwest of Denver, shortly before 8:30 a.m. local time. The piping that the truck was hauling spilled onto the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-70 when the truck flipped over.
The accident caused at least three other vehicles to crash, according to Eric Kellogg, division chief of the Wheat Ridge Police Department. Three people inside one of those vehicles died.
Family members identified the deceased crash victims as Ruben Rodriguez, 33, Juliana Rodriguez Plata, 37, and Plata’s mother, Luz Melba Martinez, local ABC affiliate KMGH-TV reported.
Rodriguez and Plata got married last Saturday, their family told KMGH-TV.
“They were setting goals early for their kid, possibly have more children together and just had a normal life and just getting to begin their love story,” Janell Rodriguez, Ruben Rodriguez’s sister-in-law told the outlet.
The couple’s 1-year-old son, Daniel, who goes by Danny, and Plata’s father, Carlos Joaquin Plata, were in the car when the crash occurred and were injured. According to Kellogg, the driver of the semi-truck was also injured.
The couple, their son and Plata’s parents, who came in from Colombia, were headed for a honeymoon in the mountains when the accident occurred.
“We were just happy. We were just having fun. And then we get this news that they’re gone,” Janell Rodriguez said. “And then the baby without both of his parents, you know? It’s hard. It’s hard for the family. So we’re just gathered here right now just trying to be strong together.”
The couple’s car was driving westbound when the crash happened, according to the family.
“We just want to know exactly what happened because they were on the other side of the highway. They weren’t even near the semi-truck,” Rodriguez said.
Newsweek reached out to the Jefferson County coroner via online form for comment on Friday afternoon.
Additional Crashes
Four people were killed and 11 more were injured in three separate crashes in the span of about an hour on the Ohio Turnpike on Thursday morning.
The first crash involved one commercial vehicle hauling sulfuric acid and a car. Two people were killed in the incident, and three more were taken to hospitals in the Toledo area.
Four commercial vehicles and a car were involved in the second crash. One person was killed in the accident and three more were injured.
The third crash involved three commercial vehicles and two cars. The accident left one dead and five others injured.
