No charges yet in head-on crash

Accident involved wrong-way driver traveling near casino exit

SANTA FE — Two young women from Rio Arriba County remain in the hospital two weeks after they sustained serious injuries when the car they were riding in was hit by a wrong-way driver north of Santa Fe.

A lawyer for the women’s family said they were returning home after making enrollment arrangements for college classes in Albuquerque. No one had been charged in the accident as of Friday.

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs initially provided basic information on the accident, but the case is now under investigation by the New Mexico State Police.

The wreck occurred about 10 p.m. April 28, a Friday night, on U.S. 84/285 near the exit for Pojoaque Pueblo’s Buffalo Thunder Casino and Resort.

State Police Officer Charles Volk was driving north on the highway when he saw a Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck heading southbound in the northbound lanes. He turned on his emergency lights and siren and turned around to drive south himself in an attempt to warn motorists of the wrong-way driver, according to State Police statement. Volk then saw the Tacoma collide head-on with a Volkswagen Passat.

The pickup driver, Anthony Dorame, 41, a teacher at Santa Fe Indian School identified by the BIA as a Tesuque Pueblo member, was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle and sustained serious injuries.

The driver of the Passat, Celian Valdez, 18, and her passenger and sister Camille Valdez, also 18, both from Ojo Caliente, also were seriously hurt.

All three were transported by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe. The Valdez sisters spent several days in the intensive care unit and were still in the hospital undergoing rehabilitation on Friday, family attorney Aaron Boland said.

Boland said he still has been unable to obtain a police report on or details of the crash.