Victim ID’d in Old Las Vegas Highway rollover
The Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office said 57-year-old William Weldon of Santa Fe died Thursday afternoon in a two-vehicle crash on Old Las Vegas Highway that shut down the roadway for hours.
Juan Rios, a sheriff ’s office spokesman, said Weldon, a longtime builder who owned Weldon Construction LLC, died at the scene.
Weldon was driving northbound in a gray Nissan Titan pickup on Old Las Vegas Highway when a southbound red Subaru Forester, driven by Gilbert Baca Jr., 32, of Santa Fe drifted into the northbound lane and struck Weldon’s truck, causing it to roll over one and one half times, Rios said. Weldon was ejected from the truck, he added.
Investigators don’t believe alcohol was a factor in the crash, which was reported at 3:22 p.m. Thursday near the intersection with Ute Circle, Rios said.
“No charges have been filed at this time,” Rios said in an email. “Investigators will consult with the District Attorney’s Office regarding their findings.”
Baca, in a brief phone interview with The New Mexican, said he was “safe and well.”
Weldon, a native New Yorker who moved to Santa Fe in 2004, had three daughters and two grandsons.
Mary Stuart, one of his daughters, said her father loved New Mexico. He lived in Santa Fe with his two dogs, Mickey and Finn, she said.
“He loved it when we came to visit,” said Stuart, who lives in Delaware.
Weldon first experienced New Mexico while serving in the Air Force at the Kirtland Air Force Base.
Weldon’s daughter Patty Weldon of Santa Fe said in a Facebook post that friends are invited to celebrate her father’s life with family members during a vigil Mass at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Oratory of the Mother of God, “a chapel Dad built with his own two hands at 17 Wildflower Way.”
A Mass is also planned at 9 a.m. Monday at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, and a memorial service will be held in early June on the East Coast, the post says.
“Thank you for all of your kind words and stories about our Dad,” Patty Weldon said in the public Facebook post. “It serves as confirmation that he was just as amazing in real life as we made him out to be as little girls.”