Local and region: Police seek suspect in Gorge Bridge hit-and-run.
Texas man, 74, severely injured at Gorge Bridge by driver who fled scene
An elderly man was airlifted from the west end of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge on Saturday afternoon after he was struck and severely injured by a silvercolored sedan that fled the scene, according to the Taos County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said the victim was a 74-year-old Texas man, who was standing near his pickup on the southwest side of U.S. 64 near the bridge when the speeding driver, traveling east toward Taos, drove onto the shoulder of the roadway and struck him.
The man was flown to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque after being treated at the scene by Taos County Emergency Services, Hogrefe said.
According to information from Taos Central Dispatch, the man suffered from severe blood loss from a “traumatic amputation of a leg.” No further information about the victim was released by authorities, and law enforcement did not have a suspect identified Saturday afternoon.
Reports from Taos Central Dispatch indicate that the suspect was driving a silver Chevy Cavalier with tinted windows, a missing passenger-side rear-view mirror and front-end damage. Some witnesses said they saw the driver toss what looked like alcohol containers out of the vehicle’s window as the car fled east.
Law enforcement authorities had not confirmed those details.
“We’ve received several conflicting reports from witnesses on the scene,” Hogrefe said.
One witness, Susie Cody, who was near the bridge when the man was hit, said it appeared as though one of the man’s legs may have been severed and the other leg broken when he was struck.
Law enforcement officials shut down east- and westbound lanes on U.S. 64 near the bridge for nearly an hour while they tended to the injured man and investigated the scene, backing up traffic for more than a quarter of a mile in either direction.
Officials urge anyone with information regarding the silver Chevy Cavalier or driver who might have been involved in the incident to call Taos Central Dispatch at 758-2217 or Taos County CrimeStoppers at 758-HALT.
A version of this story first appeared in The Taos News ,a sister paper of The New Mexican.