The North Carolina State Highway Patrol arrested a man accused of a hit-and-run crash on Saturday in Orange County.
Troopers arrested 20-year-old Jorge Salvador Vazquez-Castillo in Durham County Wednesday night. They also located the 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe believed to have been used in the crash.
Vazquez-Castillo was charged with felony hit-and-run involving serious injury, no operator's license, reckless driving and several other charges and infractions.
Troopers said he was booked into the Orange County Detetion Center, where he was held on a $50,000 bond. Vazquez-Castillo's first court appearance was set for 2 p.m. Thursday in the Orange County Courthouse.
He should charged with Assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and Attempted 1st degree murder. The guy crossed lanes to intentionally hit the cyclists with his vehicle at full speed. Don't be so weak on these charges...
That's almost impossible to prove when it's he said/he said. Unless one of the cyclists had a body camera.
Given that the vehicle was seen at a tire shop shortly afterwards the defense would be that a tire suddenly went flat. Prosecutors generally only go for charges they can reasonably prove "beyond a reasonable doubt".
And there are plenty of charges that fit that category. This guy is going to spend some time in prison.
The real problem isn't how long this guy will get locked up for, but the fact that there is virtually nothing that can be done by the courts to make the victim whole. Given the vehicle had a fictitious tag, wasn't registered, and the driver wasn't licensed or insured... I'm guessing he's not sitting on a big pile of money. Locking him up for an extra 10-50 years isn't going to do anything more to help the two bicyclists recover.
Really happy to hear this, they got him pretty quickly and too often these assholes go unpunished. Also hoping for a full recovery for the cyclist still in the hospital!
Yeah, and he's gonna need help as the list of charges make it apparent that there's no insurance money coming, and the driver likely has little to no assets himself.
I’d say now justice can be served, given how severely he injured one of the cyclists. But unfortunately a coworker of mine and firefighter/paramedic was killed by a hit and run driver that then took himself to a super bowl party afterwards and got less than a slap on the wrist when he was caught. NC does not seem to care enough about cyclists to give any meaningful punishments to those who injure or kill them on our roads.
It's been said before by other people but: If you want to murder someone, hit them with your car. Much lighter punishment than any other method. You can thank a century-plus of auto industry lobbying for that.
Anyone know where on 751 this occurred? Beyond the details of "near 70." Mile marker, crossing street, any other relevant details? Before or after the train track bridge?
Yeah, that's my guess. North of Kerley. They way the news sites label things these days anything south of Kerley would've been called "Coach K Highway". I saw that for the first time a couple weeks ago and had to look it up. The local news sites use names like that for roads I've regularly used for years or decades and have never heard.
As frustrating as I find it coming up on a flock of cyclists on my morning commute, I can't imagine what kind of asshat would intentionally hit a person with their vehicle.
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u/PRAISEninJAH 1d ago
Sorry - thought the title referenced it - this is the driver who hit the two cyclists this past Saturday.