The New Mexican Aug 6, 2018
A group of local motorists who witnessed a nasty, one-car crash on N.M. 599 late Sunday morning banded together to lift the flipped vehicle off one of two boys who’d been ejected, a witness said.
The boys, ages 6 and 7, were in an Albuquerque hospital Monday, Santa Fe police spokesman Greg Gurulé said, adding he believed the boys’ conditions had improved, according to reports police received.
Gurulé would not identify the passengers in the vehicle, nor the driver, who suffered minor injuries. He later said the driver was the boys’ father.
The father, Gurulé said, told police he fell asleep and lost control of the car, which then rolled and flipped several times traveling south on N.M. 599 near Tesera Road. The car came to rest on its roof on the frontage road after ejecting the boys.
Gurulé said motorists nearby had rushed to the scene to help.
Rick Sandoval, a 50-year-old Santa Fe lawyer, was driving north on the N.M. 599 frontage road just before 11 a.m. Sunday when he saw the car roll across the lanes and flip three times, stopping ahead of his vehicle.
“It was really gruesome,” Sandoval said Monday, reflecting on what he saw when he approached the wreckage.
One boy was next to the car, Sandoval said, while the other was trapped beneath the overturned hood.
With three or four other people already around the car trying to help, Sandoval said he remembers hearing someone yell “Lift the car.” He said he and the group of people proceeded to raise the sedan, enabling someone to drag the boy from beneath.
“I didn’t think it was possible, but we did it,” Sandoval said. “That group of people came together and did it.”
With blood on his shoes, Sandoval said he left the scene as police and emergency responders arrived, about two minutes after the motorists pulled the boy from under the car. “I just wish I could have done more, faster,” he said.
Police closed the southbound lanes until 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Gurulé said police are continuing to investigate the crash.
