Nearly 17 months after a New York commercial truck driver allegedly killed one person and hurt five others when he reportedly “plowed through” a line of vehicles on an icy Interstate 80 in Sweetwater County, he now faces an aggravated homicide charge in Wyoming.
Dilshod Boronov, born in 2000, was driving too fast for the less-than-ideal weather conditions through a construction zone when the white Freightliner semitrailer he was driving barreled into a line of vehicles, according to an affidavit in support of criminal charges against him filed in Sweetwater County Circuit Court last week.
Those include two felonies — aggravated homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault and battery — along with misdemeanor counts of failure to exercise extreme caution and failure to wear a seat belt.
He touched off a chain-reaction crash involving six other vehicles that left a Mexican man, 23-year-old Cristobal Jara Garcia, dead, the affidavit says.
Multiple witnesses reported seeing a white Freightliner, later determined to have been operated by Boronov, driving too fast to be able to stop at the scene near mile marker 143 on eastbound I-80 about 30 miles west of Wamsutter, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reports.
One witness who was driving westbound at the time told investigators that when he noticed the semitrailer approaching, he could tell it wouldn’t be able to stop, the affidavit says.
“He observed the white semitruck traveling much faster than it should have been and described the white semitruck as ‘flying,’” the affidavit adds. “It was apparent … that the vehicle was traveling much faster than the posted variable speed limit of 45 mph.”
The man said he was driving about 15 mph at the time, and that he watched as the Freightliner “plowed through all those vehicles,” according to the affidavit.
That’s when he parked and began to help the people in the vehicles involved in the crash.
He also told troopers that “everybody there would not have been involved had it not been for the … truck in the middle of them,” the affidavit says.
Chain-Reaction
The incident began when the driver of another vehicle observed the white semitrailer in his rearview mirror coming up behind him “traveling at a speed that made it apparent that the white semi would not be able to slow down in time and would hit (his) car.”
The driver tried to move over to the left lane to avoid being hit, but couldn’t get out of the way in time and was struck from behind and pushed into the median, the affidavit says.
That driver continues to suffer from a mild traumatic brain injury and had lingering post-traumatic migraines, cervical spine whiplash and ear problems.
Another driver reported seeing the semitrailer coming up behind him “too fast for the winter conditions,” the affidavit says. He also tried to move his car out of the way, but wasn’t able to.
His car was hit from behind by another vehicle, a Ram 2500 truck, that was hit by the Freightliner allegedly driven by Boronov, the affidavit says.
That pushed him into another Dodge pickup in front of him, which spun clockwise 90 degrees into the lane of Boronov’s semi, which collided with it and pushed it into the rear of another semitrailer.
The driver of the Dodge, a 2019 Ram, was seriously hurt and a passenger in the truck, Garcia, was killed, according to the affidavit and a Wyoming Highway Patrol report at the time.
Frightening Confrontation
In the aftermath of the crash, witnesses reported Boronov was the driver of the white Freightliner, the affidavit says, while also outlining another altercation with the driver of the first vehicle that was hit and pushed onto the median.
The affidavit reports that the man “called 911 to report the accident, and while in the median sitting in his car, (he) observed the driver of the white semitruck, later identified as Dilshod Boronov, attempting to open (his) passenger door to get into his vehicle.”
He kept the doors locked and denied access to his vehicle, but Boronov reportedly was persistent, the affidavit says.
“After three or four attempts to open his door, (the man) showed Dilshod Boronov a handgun he kept in his car to get Boronov to leave him alone,” the document adds.
While investigating following the crash, WHP troopers talked with the trucking company Boronov was working for, which was cooperative, the affidavit says. However, they were unable to get in contact with Boronov and the state has put out a warrant for his arrest.
If convicted of aggravated homicide by vehicle, Boronov could face up to 20 years in prison. He also could get up to 10 years for a conviction on the aggravated assault and battery charge.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
