Lowell man held on $50,000 bail in high-speed crash that killed fetus

BOSTON, September 28, 2026 – A Lowell man is being held on $50,000 bail after being charged today in a high-speed head-on collision last month that injured a pregnant woman and killed her 26-week-old fetus, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.

LUIS BERMUDEZ TORRES, 23, was charged in Suffolk Superior Court with manslaughter, reckless motor vehicle homicide and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (car) causing serious bodily injury. Suffolk Superior Clerk Magistrate Edward Curley set bail at $50,000 and ordered Torres not to drive.  Torres will return to court November 2 for a pre-trial conference.

Assistant District Attorney Ursula Knight said Torres and his girlfriend left an event at Franklin Field at about 10 p.m. on August 17 in Torres’s 2016 Honda Accord and were driving north on the Jamaicaway when Torres rear-ended another car at an intersection.  Knight said Torres panicked, drove around the struck car, and continued inbound on the Jamaicaway at increasingly high speeds.

At a curve, Torres lost control of his vehicle, crossed the median, and crashed head-on into a 2017 Nissan Altima being driven by the pregnant woman, whose brother was in the passenger seat.  The data recorder in Torres’s car tracked his speed at 103 mph shortly before the crash, Knight said.

The speed limit at crash site is 25 mph. 

The woman, 39, suffered blunt-force injuries and a fractured wrist.  She was transported to a hospital where she was informed that her fetus, a boy, had died. Her brother was not injured. Torres’s girlfriend suffered substantial injuries.  Torres suffered a laceration to his leg.

Torres was indicted Friday by a Suffolk grand jury and was arrested this morning in Boxford.

Hayden said his office’s victim witness advocates, who have received specialized trauma training, will provide the victim with essential support as the case moves forward.

“The circumstances here point to terribly reckless actions that have caused enormous heartbreak. The fact that this woman was doing nothing more than driving on a summer evening just magnifies the tragedy,” Hayden said.

All charged individuals are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Our office handles more than 20,000 cases a year. Nearly 160 assistant district attorneys practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Boston and Chelsea Juvenile Courts and the Supreme Judicial Court. Our office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs for anyone encountering the criminal justice system. We are committed to educating the public about our mission and services while focusing on crime prevention to keep the residents, workers and visitors of Suffolk County safe.

James Borghesani, Chief of Communications