Another walker killed on 602

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Two dead bodies inside 24 hours: that’s what Gallup Police detectives are investigating after another fatal vehicle versus pedestrian accident on N.M. Highway 602 Wednesday about 7:50 p.m.

Emery Joe, 43, died Wednesday at Gallup Indian Medical Center minutes after a GMC Yukon struck him in the southbound lane near the junction of N.M. 602 and Second Street on Gallup’s south side. Joe was struck less than a mile away from the site of another fatal vehicle versus pedestrian accident — on the same road — Tuesday night.

In both cases, the drivers had not been drinking, according to Gallup Police Detective Lt. Rick White.

“We used to have a lot of these on triple six (U.S. Highway 491) until they installed all that lighting,” White said at the scene of the first fatality Tuesday night. “After that, pedestrian fatalities decreased substantially.”

Reporter Phil Stake can be reached at philip.stake@gmail.com, or by calling (505) 863-6811 x222.