Victim of crash on I-40 Friday night still unidentified

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

PUEBLO OF LAGUNA — New Mexico State Police still do not have positive identification of a woman killed Friday in a one-vehicle rollover on Interstate 40 in Cibola County.

State Police Officer Mike Cruz said the woman is being called Jane Doe because she had no identification such as a driver license on her. Cruz said the woman, described only as being in her late 20s to early 30s, was driving east toward Albuquerque at a high rate of speed when the accident happened.

The accident took place at 10:58 a.m. at Mile Marker 110. Cruz said the woman was driving a 1994 white Infinity. State Police spokesman Peter Olson said the car is registered to a person in Albuquerque. "The registered owner was not driving the vehicle," Olson said.

The woman was driving in the left lane, police reports show.

"She was going at a high rate of speed when a vehicle in the right lane pulled into the left lane," Cruz said. "She tried to avoid a collision and veered into the right lane, went onto the shoulder and hit the guardrail."

Striking the guardrail apparently forced the fast-moving Infinity into a roll. "The car rolled several times," Cruz said.

Cruz said the woman was not thrown from the vehicle, but she was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Cruz said Jane Doe was the only person in the car at the time of the accident.

Members of the Pueblo of Laguna Fire and Rescue Team were called to the scene to assist in the accident.

State Police Spokesman Lt. Jimmy Glascock said Sunday night that some people from out-of-state are being called to New Mexico for a possible identification of the dead woman. "We really can't say anything more until then," Glascock said about the identification.

The accident happened about two miles east of the Dancing Eagle Casino on the Pueblo of Laguna.