A truck driver sobbed as he recounted the tragic events leading to the death of a group of cyclists on a Nevada highway, police bodycam footage revealed.
Jordan Alexander Barson faces five counts of DUI after crashing to the cyclists on a 130-mile retirement celebration ride, killing five.
The footage released by the Clark County District Attorney’s Office shows Barson weeping as he recalls waking up at the wheel “to seeing bikers.”
“I guess I feel asleep. I don’t remember. I remember hitting those speed bumps,” the 45-year-old trucker said before breaking down.
Barson is also shown on the footage fumbling through a nine-step field sobriety test, putting his hand up against his Isuzu NPR HD box truck at one point for balance.
He later copped to having taken methamphetamine the afternoon before the crash, as blood tests found nine times the legal limit of the addictive stimulant in his system.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson promised to prosecute to the full extent of the law.
“What it comes down to, like anything else, is making choices. When your choices, such as driving while intoxicated, affect other people’s lives, that’s when it becomes very serious,” he said in an interview.
“When five innocent people who were out for a bike ride lose their lives, the consequences of his behavior are so severe that it’s hard to think about minimum sentences.”
Wolfson said that Barson was in custody Wednesday and was awaiting extradition, and may face up to decades in prison.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to prison forever,” said Barson.
“I feel so bad for them, like why did I survive that?”
The cyclists, who were in the midst of an annual ride from Las Vegas through the desert of Nevada and California, were also celebrating the recent retirement of a fellow rider during the trip.