July 16 -- A multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 25 near Bernalillo early Sunday morning left three people dead and 24 others injured, authorities said.
Among the injured were people in a commercial passenger bus that rolled across the highway median and was sideswiped by a tractor-trailer.
“It’s one of the most severe crashes I’ve ever seen,” said Lt. Keith Elder of the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office, one of several agencies that responded to the scene, about a mile north of the U.S. 550 exit in Bernalillo.
According to the initial investigation, a news release from the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office said, a car headed south on I-25 rear-ended a pickup, sending it into the northbound median. The driver of the car was ejected, the release said, and the car came to a stop in the southbound lanes.
The passenger bus, also headed southbound, swerved to avoid the car but lost control and rolled onto its right side, crossing the median into the northbound lanes, the release said. Then, a tractor-trailer heading north tried to avoid the bus but sideswiped it and ran across the median, across the southbound lanes, and past the frontage road on the west side of the interstate.
The driver of the car that hit the pickup died at scene, Elder said. He could not immediately specify in which vehicles the other two fatal crash victims traveled.
Elder said that all three of the deceased were adults.
Sandoval County Fire Chief James Maxon said 38 people were involved in the crash and 24 were taken to area hospitals. He added it took more than two hours for the last patient to be evacuated from the scene, which was stretched over the length of a football field.
University of New Mexico Hospital and Sandoval Regional Medical Center said it received 20 patients from the crash, and was treating injuries that range from broken bones and lacerations to head and internal injuries, according to a news release issued late Sunday morning.
Twelve patients were transported to UNM Hospital in Albuquerque, the news release said, and eight were moved to Sandoval Regional Medical Center in Rio Rancho. Of those, six were treated and released. The news release from the sheriff’s office said four patients were in critical condition.
Elder said the passenger bus belonged to El Paso-Los Angeles Limousine Express. A call seeking comment from the company was not returned Sunday night.
Rio Rancho Fire and Rescue posted photos on Facebook just after 4 a.m. showing a severely damaged bus flipped on its side and a long line of traffic lights strung out on the dark highway behind it. First responders had to use a hydraulic rescue device to get some passengers out of the bus, the department said.
“Our first unit arrived on scene to find a bus on its side and patients trapped inside,” Maxon said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. “The patients were being rescued by law enforcement and let out through the windshield opening of the bus.”
Elder said in the news release that at least nine police, fire and ambulance agencies responded to the crash, including New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Fire Department.
The Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office, state police and the U.S. Department of Transportation are investigating the crash, Elder said. As of Sunday evening, he said it was too early to tell if alcohol might have been a factor.
Traffic was diverted around the crash for nearly 12 hours Sunday. Elder said the highway reopened just before 2 p.m. Sunday.
Earlier Sunday morning, both lanes of I-25 were also closed farther south, near the exits to Lead and Coal avenues in Albuquerque, due to a fatal shooting involving a New Mexico State Police officer.
At a news conference Sunday morning, Deputy Chief Robert Eshom said a police officer stopped a blue Honda sedan for speeding around 2 a.m. and started talking to a passenger in the vehicle. The passenger lunged at the officer and the pair struggled, according to a news release from state police early Sunday evening.
The officer, state police said, was shot in the left leg during the fight. The officer fired back, killing the passenger, Eshom said. State police had not released the name of the officer, the driver or the dead passenger. The driver was not currently facing charges, the news release said. Police found a .25 caliber handgun in the car and seized the weapon for evidence.
The officer was treated and released from the hospital by 8 a.m. Sunday, Eshom said.
According to the news release, the Albuquerque Metro Police Shooting Task Force is investigating the incident, and the officer has been put on administrative leave, per the department’s policy.
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