Child remains in critical condition after crash
Mother also injured in rollover accident
Police say an 8-year-old boy remained in critical condition Wednesday after he and his mother were in a rollover crash Tuesday night near the Sunport.
Albuquerque police spokesman Simon Drobik said the boy’s mother, who was driving, is in stable condition.
He said speed was a “contributing factor” in the crash, but would not elaborate.
The crash occurred after 8 p.m. at the intersection of Yale and Gibson SE.
The boy was rushed to a hospital, but rescue crews had to free the mother, who was trapped inside the wreckage, before she was taken to a hospital.
Denise Chavez said she was waiting at the light when the car went by “going so fast,” hit the center median and flipped at least three times before hitting a light pole.
“It happened so fast,” she said. “The only thing I could see was sparks.”
Chavez said she parked and went straight to the 8-year-old boy, who had been thrown from the car and was lying on the pavement crying in pain and asking, “Where’s my mommy?”
She said she tried calming him down by asking him questions: where he went to school, how old he was.
Another person came up with a sweater and gave it to Chavez, who said she put it under the boy’s head “very carefully” to stop the bleeding.
“There was blood all over the ground,” she said. “It was horrible.”
Then Chavez said she went to the wreckage to check on the mother and tell her that her son was “doing
OK.”
“She was under the car. There was really nothing I could do for her,” she said. That’s when rescue crews and firefighters arrived and took over.
“I was really scared. I have never been through this before,” Chavez said. “I have a four-yearold son. I think about what if that happened to me or my son.”
She said the jarring experience will make her think twice on the road.
“It made me realize: Drive patiently, don’t go fast” Chavez said. “Just be more cautious.”
Around a dozen firefighters and rescue personnel crowded around the mangled wreckage after pulling the mother out of the car and placing her on a stretcher. After the mother was taken to a hospital, an officer could be seen crouched down looking inside the vehicle. One of the tires had fallen off the vehicle and stood partially shredded nearby.
The intersection was closed late into the night while police investigated.