LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s pretty hard to miss an ambulance when it’s heading down the street with its lights and sirens on. A suspected drunk driver still managed to slam into one. An ambulance crew worked frantically to pull their driver out after they had just gotten t-boned by a Camaro last month in Las Cruces.
The driver of the Camaro, Juan Carlos Baquera, 22, didn’t notice the lights and sirens and t-boned the ambulance. No one was seriously hurt in the crash but Baquera’s initial story didn’t add up. It began back and forth over who was driving the Camaro at the time of the crash but Baquera eventually came clean and came back to the scene.
Officer: “Just don’t wander off on us.”
Baquera: “Oh, yeah, my bad. I didn’t know that. My bad. I’ll be around the area.”
Officer: “No, you’ll be right here. Have a seat on the curb for us, actually.”
Witnesses and cops said Baquera appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and possibly marijuana.
Officer: “When I got here, you were moving beer cans and stuff around so be honest with me, have you had any alcohol?”
Baquera dodges the question. He does poorly on a series of field sobriety tests and once in cuffs, an officer tries to comfort Baquera.
Officer: “We gotta put all of that other stuff in our rearview mirror, deal with this one step at a time. Everybody’s okay. Everybody was okay in your car. We can unhinge some of these mistakes, okay?”
Baquera: “It’s just… I got a DUI recently… just yesterday.”
Officer: “You got a DUI yesterday?”
Baquera: “Yeah.”
Officers couldn’t seem to believe what he was hearing as the officer asks more questions. Baquera was then hauled off to jail again for the second time in two days. Court records show Baquera’s first DWI charge was temporarily dropped while prosecutors wait for the results of his drug tests.
