Online fundraiser set up for family of 10-day-old girl killed in crash outside Raton

An Albuquerque law firm has set up a GoFundMe account to help a family grieving the loss of a 10-day-old girl who was killed in a crash near Raton almost two months ago.

According to a New Mexico State Police report the Journal obtained from Kehlany Martin’s family attorney Shane Maier, a Georgia truck driver was traveling southeast of Raton on a sunny day with minimal wind in early February when the he hit and ran over a pickup carrying 10-day-old Martin.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Martin’s mother, Claudia Morales, told the Journal through an interpreter on Monday afternoon. “A nightmare I’ve been trying to wake up from.”

The report states the truck driver told police he left the Denver area around 11 a.m. and was heading toward Dallas when the incident happened.

According to police, officers did not detect signs of impairment and said the contributing factor for the crash was driver inattention.

The driver, who did not appear at a March 22 arraignment, was cited for exceeding the 11-hour truck driving limit and 14-hour work limit, and having a false log book. Another arraignment has been scheduled for Friday morning at Santa Fe Magistrate Court, according to court records.

“I believe there should be manslaughter charges based on his conduct, but that’s not happened yet,” Maier said.

Acceleration issues

Maier said the family was on its way from the state of Washington to Florida when at about 5:20 p.m. Feb. 9, State Police received a call of a two-vehicle crash with injuries involving a semitrailer off U.S.64/87 by Potato Mountain near Raton, according to the police report.

Police say when officers arrived, they saw a heavily damaged white pickup with Florida plates on its roof blocking both eastbound lanes and a damaged semi lying on its passenger side.

The report states the truck driver told police he was driving on cruise control, wearing a headset and talking to his father on his cellphone. The driver told police the pickup was driving at a low speed. As the trucker caught up to the pickup, the driver told police he did not see the pickup with brake lights on before he swerved to avoid “further running into” the pickup.

Morales told police while she did not remember how fast they were traveling; the pickup may have had “issues accelerating,” the report states.

According to NMSP, two witnesses told police they saw the pickup with its hazard lights on as the truck approached . The truck driver told police the semi was going “approximately” 70 mph when it rear-ended, then ran over the pickup, went through a guardrail and crashed into an embankment, the report states.

The infant Kehlany — who Maier said was in a car seat at the time of the crash — was pronounced dead at the scene by the Office of the Medical Investigator, while the other occupants of the pickup and the truck driver were taken to Miners’ Colfax Medical Center in Raton, the report states.

The truck driver was treated for minor injuries and released, State Police spokesman Wilson Silver said in an email.

‘He still can’t walk to this day’

Kehlany’s death is just part of the “nightmare” the Martin family is facing.

Maier said the family, including Morales’ 4-year-old son, Dylan Martin, was flown to University of New Mexico Hospital.

Dylan, who broke his femur during the crash, has had at least eight surgeries and “still can’t walk to this day,” Maier said.

Weeks after the incident, Morales tried to be strong for her son as she mourns the loss of her infant daughter and deals with the effects of a broken heart, a brain bleed and broken ribs.

“Its been two months since this happened, and I still have difficulty breathing,” she said.

“We want to continue with our lives, continue to be a family like we used to be,” Morales said. “It’s going to be difficult.”

Maier said everything in the truck was all the Martins had and it was destroyed during the crash.

Maier said his firm, Gauthier & Maier Law Firm, set up a GoFundMe account on the family’s behalf with a $10,000 goal. As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, $550 was raised.

“First of all, we are asking for help from the community because we are left with nothing after the accident,” Morales said.

Attempts were made to reach the driver’s trucking company for comment, but they did not respond as of Tuesday afternoon.