1 dead as 100-mph driver hits ambulance

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) - A wrong-way driver speeding at over 100 mph crashed head-on crash into an ambulance on Interstate 25 early Tuesday killing one person and injuring two others, according to Santa Fe police.

The ambulance driver suffered critical injuries as did a person in the car. A second person in the car was ejected and died.

It is not yet clear who was driving the car, and the names of the two people have not yet been released.

Vanessa Carrillo, 19, was alone in the Rocky Mountain EMS ambulance and returning from transporting a patient to Albuquerque. The crash occurred just before 2:30 a.m. in the northbound lanes of I-25about one mile north of the Cerrillos Road exit.

Northbound I-25 remained closed between Cerrillos Road and the St. Francis Drive exit until about 2 p.m., the New Mexico Department of Transportation reported.

Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said the wrong-way car was exceeding 100 mph at the time of the crash. Santa Fe County sheriff's deputies had been looking for the car before the accident after getting reports it was going south in the northbound lanes of I-25.

The survivor from the car was transported to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe and was reported to be in stable condition and talking coherently.

Carrillo had initially been taken to Christus St. Vincent but then airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque because of the severity of her injuries.

"Obviously speed appears to be a factor," Wheeler said. "The wrong-way driving appears to be a factor.

Police are investigating whether alcohol was a factor.

"It's 2 in the morning, you have a vehicle heading the wrong way on the interstate," Wheeler said.  "Those kinds of things don't just happen by chance."

Santa Fe police said although they believe alcohol may be involved it will take blood tests to confirm that.