This story was updated at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Multiple trucks were involved in a collision at a rest stop west of Deming Tuesday afternoon, resulting in the death of a driver who appeared to lose control of his truck after a blowout, according to multiple witnesses.
New Mexico State Police confirmed Wednesday that the crash involved one fatality. The New Mexico Department of Transportation said five semis were involved. There was no official confirmation that the driver of the first truck was the person who was deceased, but Williams and other witnesses who spoke with the Headlight said it was.
The incident occurred near mile marker 52 on Interstate 10 eastbound, at a rest stop that remains closed. NMSP officer Wilson Silver, a spokesperson for the agency, said the deceased was not yet being publicly identified, as next of kin were still being contacted by authorities. No further information was available as late as Saturday.
Angel Lebron, a truck driver based in Florida, said he, too, was driving eastbound when the truck passed him at a speed of approximately 70 to 75 miles per hour. It then abruptly veered to the right, suggesting to him the truck had lost its passenger-side front tire.
Lebron said the driver appeared to be attempting to pull over while struggling to maintain control, entering the rest stop at a high rate of speed before ramming into the trailer of another truck. Lebron said the driver hit the other truck on its passenger side, suggesting the driver took the impact directly on his side. He said he saw flames almost immediately. He stopped to assist others at the accident scene and give a report to police.
Iva Asoiva, a passenger in the first truck to be struck, shared this photo of the fire that ensued at a rest stop west of Deming on Sept. 26. (Photo courtesy of Iva Asoiva)
Iva Asoiva was a passenger in the first truck to be hit, traveling with her truck driver husband on a route from California to Florida. She told the Headlight they were at the rest stop for a nap when their trailer was struck, and both were later transported to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. In an email, she said another truck driver who had witnessed the crash assisted them as they exited their truck, in pain and shaken.
She shared a recording her husband made of that conversation, in which the unnamed witness told him, “His front tire blew and he couldn’t control it, I saw it. … He’s dead.”
Another driver involved in the wreck, Samuel Williams of Arkansas, also said the driver appeared to have lost a steer tire and struggled to maintain control.
Williams said his own rig was the second to be struck, as semis rammed into one another following the initial impact. His truck caught fire as well and was a “total loss.” He later shared a photograph of his truck, completely burned. He said he had been hauling military supplies, and he and his pregnant wife have been in Las Cruces since the accident.
“Me and my wife should have died,” he said in a text message. “We just stopped for a break and not 5 minutes later, I caught her in mid-air flying out of the back where she was asleep.”
Talking on the phone, Williams said that in more than 20 years driving, “I’ve seen some bad wrecks but never been in one like this.”
Truck driver Samuel Williams shared this photo of his rig after it burned, following a fatal collision involving multiple trucks at a rest stop west of Deming on Sept. 26. (Photo courtesy of Samuel Williams)
Walter Jordan, a commercial truck driver of 16 years, witnessed the incident as he was driving westbound. He said he immediately pulled over to the side of the interstate and called 911.
“The driver was going into the rest area, but he was going extremely too fast,” Jordan told the Headlight, estimating that the driver was driving at least 70 miles per hour on a ramp with a posted speed limit of 45. In his video, Jordan remarks, “I have no clue what that driver was looking at,” and did not appear to have seen a blowout.
Lebron said at least three trucks caught fire.
Jordan said he observed the truck’s initial collision with another 18-wheeler at approximately 4:30 or 4:45 p.m. and that the fire spread quickly. The cab of the truck became engulfed in flames as Jordan watched from the other side of the highway. Jordan did not see the driver emerge, and the fire was too large and hot for anyone to approach, he said. As he took video of the scene, Jordan said he could hear the truck’s tires explode.
“I doubt the driver made it,” Jordan remarked.
NMDOT spokesperson Ami Evans said the rest area would remain closed indefinitely for clearing of the area and to address extensive damage to the entrance ramp. There was not yet any calculation of the total cost.
Lebron said he has been driving a truck for about three years, and the accident convinced him this would be his last.
“We risk our lives every day,” he said. “People don’t understand, they see this big truck … and in reality, man, it’s just fiberglass and it’s just us sitting in front of the windshield. Whatever we smash into, we’re done.”
He remarked that demand for truck drivers is high enough that new drivers are being put on the road more quickly. As for how to react when one of the truck’s front tires blows out, he said there is typically little to no training despite the danger.
“No school gives you training for blowout tires while you’re driving,” he said. “They should be giving training for that. That should be mandatory.”
He shared video he took while assisting another truck driver, who was traveling with a companion. As that driver pulls out a single gray bag, he remarks, “We just had a house fire. … This is all we’ve got.”
Algernon D’Ammassa can be reached at [email protected].
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