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Monday, June 29, 2009
Broadside Collision Occurred on Old Las Vegas Highway
By Phil Parker
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — Four Santa Fe teenagers were killed early Sunday when the car they were riding in was rammed by a suspected drunken driver whose Jeep was in the wrong lane just east of Santa Fe.
Rose Simmons, Julian Martinez, Alyssa Trouw and Kate Klein were passengers in a 1992 Subaru being driven by Avree Koffman, the car's only survivor.
PAT VASQUEZ-CUNNINGHAM/JOURNAL Students faculty family and friends arrive at Santa Fe Prep for a memorial service for students Kate Klein and Alyssa Trouw who were killed early Sunday morning in a tragic motor vehicle accident on the Old Las Vegas Highway east of Santa Fe, N.M. Two other teens Rose Simmons, 15, and Julian Martinez, 16, were also killed while traveling with Klein and Trouw when their vehicle was broadsided by a suspected drunk driver.
She was in critical condition on a respirator Sunday evening at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. Everyone in the Subaru was 16 except Simmons, who was 15.
Scott Owens, 28, of Santa Fe, who was driving the wrong-way Jeep that hit the Subaru, has been arrested and charged with four counts of vehicular homicide and one count of great bodily harm by motor vehicle, with further charges pending.
He suffered only minor injuries, including a bruised chest, in the crash on Old Las Vegas Highway. The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department said Owens — who has a previous DWI charge — was traveling west in the highway's eastbound lane before the collision with the teens' eastbound car.
Owens was not wearing a seat belt, according to Santa Fe County Undersheriff Robert Garcia. He said the Subaru passengers killed in the accident were all wearing seat belts.
Friend saw accident
The crash occurred at Mile Marker 5 near the Bobcat Bite restaurant shortly after midnight.
Koffman, the Subaru driver, attempted to evade Owen's 1992 Jeep Cherokee by swerving to the left and had crossed the center lane when Owens attempted to get back into the correct lane and struck Koffman's Subaru broadside, Garcia said. The entire passenger side of the Subaru was crushed inward.
Koffman and her passengers were heading to a friend's house in Eldorado east of town, Garcia said.
Another Subaru, driven by a friend of the teens', was trailing and saw the accident occur before her own car hit Owens' Jeep, Garcia said. That driver is 16 but was not identified by officials Sunday.
Garcia said the first deputy to arrive at the scene smelled alcohol on Owens and noted bloodshot eyes and slurred speech.
The deputy also reported that, when he arrived, Owens was pulling a small motorcycle from the back of his Jeep, although Garcia said he doesn't know whether Owens' intention was to flee on the motorcycle.
Blood was drawn from Owens, but Garcia said a blood-alcohol content result might not be known for two or more weeks.
Owens was previously arrested June 25, 2001, for driving while intoxicated and street racing, and booked into the Santa Fe County jail. His license was revoked for a year after that arrest. Garcia said he believed that Owens worked at a metal welding shop.
Garcia said Koffman was driving with a provisional license, meaning she was not supposed to be on the road after midnight, nor was she technically allowed to drive with more than one person under the age of 18 in her car.
Owens 'a good kid'
Rick Baca drove by the scene where the accident occurred on Sunday morning and said he is friends with Owens' mother, who had spoken with Baca's wife that day.
"She went to the crash site (Sunday morning) to look at it," Baca said. "She's pretty shook; she's really sad. That's her only son."
Another friend of Owens' family, Jeanne Milholland, said she has known Owens since he was 12. She said Owens is a whiz as a car mechanic who would help fix his mother's friends' cars when they broke down.
"He's always been a good kid," Milholland said, "smart, hard-working, reliable, honest and really good with fixing things as a mechanic. ... He's a good kid, and he doesn't deserve people to jump to conclusions about this."
Rachel O'Connor, Gov. Bill Richardson's DWI czar, said Sunday, "We're grieving for the family and concerned about the family and the victims right now."
She said she spoke with representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving "about talking to the families and we are hopeful that they will have the support they need."
"It's amazing and devastating, the consequences that one person's decision can have," O'Connor said.
Near Sunday's crash site on Interstate 25 — which runs parallel to Old Las Vegas Highway east of Santa Fe — five members of a Las Vegas, N.M., family and drunken driver Dana Papst were killed in November 2006 when Papst drove his pickup truck the wrong way on the interstate's northbound lanes into the family's van.
Journal staff writer Hailey Heinz contributed to this story.
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