Man dies in crash
Second person airlifted to hospital

By Jim Maniaci
Cibola County Bureau

A New Mexico Department of Public Safety Officer from the Motor Transportation Division explains the fatal crash that ejected this passenger more than 30 feet from the vehicle to an Office Of the Medical Investigator as he prepairs to examine the body Tuesday afternoon. Two men from the Crownpoint area were traveling west in the east-bound lanes of Highway 117 near the 59 mile marker when the vehicle left the road and rolled at least three times. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

GRANTS — A Crownpoint areaman was ejected and died around 4 p.m. Tuesday in a one-vehicle rollover just east of Grants on N.M. Route 117.

New Mexico State Police press officer Lt. Jimmy Glascock said a pair of McKinley County residents were headed west in the eastbound lane of the two-lane highway when their 1984 GMC crew cab pickup truck went off the road. When the driver overcorrected he lost control.

An observer a the scene said the truck rolled at least three times after knocking down a sign, and the passenger was ejected an estimated 30 to 40 feet.

The lieutenant said Tuesday night that he had not confirmed that the next of kin had been notified so he could not release the names. Open beer containers were found at the scene and toxicology tests will be done to determine if alcohol was involved, the press officer said.

The driver was wearing his seatbelt and had to be cut out of the crushed truck, he said. He was then flown to the University of New Mexico hospital in Albuquerque.

The Medical Investigator's Office also responded to the scene which is on the north end of the highway which loops over Interstate 40 into Grants from the east and is about a mile east of the Cibola County justice complex.

— To contact reporter Jim Maniaci, telephone (505) 285-6184 or (505) 870-7775 (cellular).