Colorado family says street racing led to death of beloved grandfather
A Colorado family is pleading for answers and accountability after they say a beloved grandfather was killed near his home in Adams County because of cars street racing.
"He didn't deserve to be hit like that," said Anthony Herrera.
Herrera says 63-year-old Joseph Zamora Hernandez was his wife's grandfather. He was also a man who showed selflessness in the community he helped cultivate at the Delux RV Park off Federal Boulevard.
"He has lived here for 15 years and out of the 15 years, he has fed the homeless. He had Thanksgiving dinner for them every year," said Herrera. He took care of a lot of women that were on drugs [and] tried to get them off of drugs."
"Everyone knew him. He was the guy always willing to jump in and help out," said Celeste Tanner, who part-owns and helps operate the RV park.
However, Hernandez's life of giving back and serving his community in unincorporated Adams County came to a screeching halt last month.
"To just know that he walked his dogs every day, and he's just on the sidewalk and all of a sudden he's gone, that's a really tough moment," said Tanner.
"I'm still shaken up about the whole thing," said Herrera.
A spokesperson for Colorado State Patrol tells CBS Colorado Hernandez was struck and killed on April 7 by a car at Federal Boulevard and West 55th Avenue following a conflict between two cars driving northbound. The incident happened at around 7:45
p.m. One vehicle swerved to avoid a collision and struck Hernandez on the sidewalk. Only the car that struck Hernandez stayed on the scene.
"Right around the time he got hit, he would walk his dogs before bed. That was his routine. he was a routine guy," said Herrera.
Nearly a month later, Herrera says there is more to his grandfather's death. Surveillance video shared by a nearby business captured the moments before the crash. Two cars can be seen driving northbound at high speeds. Herrera says they appear to be racing.
In another video taken from one of the homes at the trailer park, you can see as the white car screeching just before crashing into Hernandez.
"He flew another 20 feet into the sign," said Hernandez, pointing to the sign for the RV park.
Herrera and other residents in the area say racing is becoming more and more of a problem on this stretch of road.
"It's really concerning honestly. We fully support any way to kind of promote the traffic safety on Federal Boulevard," said Tanner.
Herrera not only wants to see more safety changes to prevent racing, but he also hopes police can hold those who killed his grandfather accountable.
Everybody needs to be witnesses to more of this [racing]. It needs to stop. It's not just this accident. There's a lot of people dying," said Herrera. This tragedy can be prevented if other people see it and humble themselves, as well, and not do this kind of racing, because it's dangerous."
Colorado State Patrol says they are still investigating this crash and looking at aggressive driving as a possible cause.
The family is hoping more people will speak up if they were witnesses to the incident and can confirm that street racing was involved or have information on the other car who fled the scene.
