A 17-year-old girl is dead, her older sister is fighting to recover, and the man accused in the crash has already posted bail and walked out of jail.
“I don’t think you can stop people from drinking and driving, but you can certainly punish them better…”
A teen is dead, and a 19-year-old is in critical condition after a North Las Vegas crash. FOX5’s Evan Leake spoke to residents. The suspect, Triquan Hughes, reportedly had… pic.twitter.com/JhP6U1QgKs
— FOX5 Las Vegas (@FOX5Vegas) May 6, 2026
According to police, 31-year-old Triquan Hughes was speeding and weaving through traffic near Craig and Simmons earlier this month when everything spiraled out of control.
Investigators say Hughes blew through a red light, hit another vehicle, crashed into a pole and wall, then slammed into two pedestrians walking on the sidewalk.
One of them, 17-year-old Janiah Gant, died at the scene. Her 19-year-old sister, Leilani Wigfall, survived but suffered critical injuries.
Police also say Hughes’ 10-year-old son was sitting in the front seat during the crash.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene.
“The whole transformer on the ground, live voltage everywhere,” neighbor Jay Coleman told FOX5. “Anybody that came behind and touched anything, they would have been shocked to death.”
Another neighbor, Allen Bertand, said the destruction was so severe people nearby couldn’t even tell what had happened at first.
“It was just chaos,” Bertand said, “I don’t think you can stop people from drinking and driving, but you can certainly punish them better and that needs to happen.”
According to the arrest report, officers said Hughes smelled of alcohol after the crash. Police also reported that Hughes told officers he “wanted to go to jail so he could bail out.”
That statement has infuriated people across Southern Nevada. That doesn’t sound like someone terrified of what they’d just done.
It sounds like someone who already understood the system well enough to know he’d probably be back out soon anyway.
And he was.
Hughes now faces multiple DUI and reckless driving charges. Bail was originally set at $250,000.
Prosecutors later asked the court to raise it to $500,000 after additional DUI charges were added to the case. The judge denied the request.
Court records show Hughes has since posted bond and is no longer in custody.
Yes, the court ordered electronic monitoring and prohibited him from driving if released. But for many Nevada families, that’s little comfort when a teenager is already dead.
This is exactly why so many people have lost faith in the system.
Regular Nevadans are tired of hearing that dangerous offenders deserve endless “second chances” while victims get funerals, hospital beds, and lifelong trauma.
Supporters of bail reform often argue that cash bail systems can unfairly punish poor defendants before trial. Civil liberties groups also point out that defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.
That’s true. But plenty of Nevadans are asking a fair question:
At what point do the rights of innocent families matter just as much as the rights of the accused?
People across Las Vegas have grown increasingly frustrated with reckless driving in recent years. Speeding, red-light running, street racing, and DUI crashes have become common complaints from residents.
You can see it every afternoon merging onto the 215. You can feel it sitting at a red light wondering whether the cross traffic is actually going to stop.
One neighbor interviewed after the crash called the area the “after 3 o’clock death zone” because of how aggressive drivers become later in the day.
Laws only work if people believe there are real consequences for breaking them. The consequences we have don’t seem to be deterring people very much.
When someone accused of driving drunk, speeding through a red light, and killing a teenager is able to post bail and go home within days, many residents feel like the system isn’t doing what it’s supposed to.
Now, one North Las Vegas family is planning a funeral instead of a graduation party.
That’s the part no court ruling can undo.
Hughes is scheduled to return to court June 17. But for a lot of Nevadans, the debate goes far past one reckless driver.
Maybe the court followed procedure. Maybe every box was technically checked.
But none of that changes the reality that the accused driver walked out of jail in a matter of days after posting bond.
The more Nevadans see cases like this, the more they wonder if the justice system still remembers who it’s supposed to protect.
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