Camera footage showed the moment a citizen confronted the trucker suspected of causing a 17-car accident, killing five in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.
Around 11:30 p.m. that night, truck driver Solomun Araya failed to stop his 18-wheeler along I-35, before crashing into stopped traffic ahead.
The accident impacted 17 cars and resulted in the deaths of three adults and two children.
Araya, 37, said he was not intoxicated, and a breathalyzer revealed he had a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.00.
Yet Araya displayed all the signs of intoxication, including bloodshot eyes, mumbled speech and swaying as he walked. He also failed a field sobriety test, according to KVUE-TV in Texas.
He now faces five counts of Intoxication Manslaughter and two counts of Intoxication Assault.
American Truckers shared a video on X of a man confronting Araya moments after the accident.
The man claimed to be a truck driver and berated Araya for his alleged recklessness.
WARNING: The following video and post contain vulgar language that some readers may find offensive.
ATU has confirmed: the driver behind today’s horrific Austin, TX crash—killing 5 and injuring 11—barely spoke English. Experts say he was almost certainly on a Non-Domicile CDL. Special interest groups have flooded our roads with unvetted, unqualified, untrained drivers,… pic.twitter.com/uByIPPp5j3
— American Truckers (@atutruckers) March 15, 2025
“You know there’s two people dead over there? And possibly two more? Possibly four? They’re dead,” the man said to Araya, who wore flip flops and spoke broken English.
Araya seemed shocked and started to make a call.
“Who are you calling? Brother, they’re finna lock your a** up. … That’s manslaughter, bro; they’re f****** dead,” the man said.
At some point Araya walked away.
When police arrived, the man told them Araya was trying to get away, and an officer took off running in that direction.
WARNING: The following video and post contain images and vulgar language that some readers may find offensive.
BREAKING: Massive accident in Austin Texas on i35 early this morning. I heard it was right around this carmax location pic.twitter.com/JnZIAkO742
— Bobby E (@BobbyEParody) March 14, 2025
Another video shared on X showed what appeared to be the same man walking around the accident area to assist. At one point, he grabbed a fire extinguisher from another trucker’s cab.
The footage showed cars flipped over and crushed with debris strewn everywhere, including people’s shoes.
An Amazon Prime truck was spotted at the scene, but it is unclear if it was Araya’s truck, according to Fox 7 Austin.
The National Transportation Safety Board held a press briefing Saturday afternoon addressing the crash.
The NTSB confirmed much of the information already known about the accident but didn’t provide significant new details.
“Since we’re just beginning our investigation, we do not have a great deal of information to report. We don’t speculate or focus on liability or criminal intent. We focus on probable cause, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again,” said NTSB Vice-Chairman Alvin Brown.
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