Milson Oliveira Filho Self-employed truck driver faces several felony counts in I-15 wreck

Alexandra Figueroa vividly remembers slowing down to a crawl for a construction zone in the southbound lanes of Interstate 15 on the night of Nov. 16. Her next memory is waking up in her pitch-black car, pinned under a tractor-trailer.

"I don't remember him hitting me," Figueroa testified Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for Milson Oliveira Filho, the truck driver who is accused of triggering a deadly pile-up that day. "I know I woke up underneath the truck."

Figueroa was one of six survivors who offered their accounts of the wreck before North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Stephen Dahl bound Oliveira ("filho" means "son" in Portuguese and is attached to the end of Brazilian names like "Jr." is in English) over for trial.

He faces four counts of felony reckless driving causing death, five counts of felony reckless driving causing serious injury and four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Oliveira, a self-employed truck driver, was hauling 80,000 pounds of paper pulp from Utah to California when he came upon the construction zone near Cheyenne Avenue, where motorists had nearly come to a complete stop.

Oliviera's attorney, Jeff Segal, contends that the 51-year-old's brakes locked up and he was unable to stop before plowing into slowing vehicles.

Segal blamed a mechanical problem with the brakes and said that Oliveira veered into the emergency lane in an attempt to avoid other vehicles.

Segal argued that prosecutors were trying to pin felony charges on a truck driver who committed "a simple human error."

"The only thing the state has proven today is that a terrible accident occurred," he said.

However, prosecutor L.J. O'Neale claimed that Oliviera was driving too fast, making it impossible to stop for traffic.

"Everyone sees the danger and slows down," O'Neale said. "But he keeps plowing through them. That's reckless driving."

Dead at the scene were Robert Allen Newsted, 31, Arturo Cortez, 69, his wife Estrellita, 64, and the couple's 7-year-old granddaughter, Kayla.

The Cortez family was en route to McCarran International Airport to pick up relatives visiting for Thanksgiving. They were in a Toyota Matrix, the first car struck by Oliviera.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Brett Bogden testified Wednesday that Oliviera said nothing about faulty brakes when he was interviewed after the accident.

Bogden said Oliviera told troopers he didn't see the backup until it was too late. Gary Foster, a commercial vehicle safety inspector with the Highway Patrol, testified he noted no problems with the brakes.

Relatives of the Cortez family sobbed as Virginia resident Sarah Hamilton described the truck barreling down the emergency lane, striking vehicles along the way.

When the truck finally came to a stop against the median, Hamilton hopped out of her vehicle and saw Kayla Cortez lying in the road.

"She was obviously dead," Hamilton said, choking back tears. "I took my jacket and covered her face up and part of her body."

Witnesses and victims described vehicles swerving to avoid the truck and rolling over one another after being struck by the tractor-trailer.

Several saw Figueroa's car being dragged by the truck.

Victor Karon was driving north near Cheyenne Avenue when he saw motorists scrambling around on the other side of the median.

He pulled over and immediately joined a crowd trying to help Figueroa.

"She was screaming, she was yelling, she was yelling 'help,'" Karon said. "I was shocked, given the condition of the automobile, that there was a soul in there."

Dahl questioned why other vehicles slowed down when they saw brake lights, but Oliviera failed to do so.

He was especially troubled by the testimony of truck driver Chris Gromek, who said he hit his brakes about a half-mile from the construction area.

At that point, Gromek said, Oliviera passed him traveling about 60 mph.

"For 30 seconds, your client presses on," Dahl told Segal.