Police: Semi driver said he could not stop before crash
Accident killed Democratic Party leader
A semitruck driver told state police he could not stop his 18-wheeler when he encountered a yellow light on U.S. 285 at Eldorado and drove into the intersection, where he smashed into a car driven by Susan Popovich, killing the 69-year-old chairwoman of the Santa Fe County Democratic Party.
A court document unsealed Tuesday provided new details about the collision, which occurred just before midnight Aug. 27 as Popovich was driving from Avenida Vista Grande onto U.S. 285 in her 2012 Mazda.
The truck driver told investigators that when he saw the yellow light he “committed himself to going through the light because he knew with the weight, speed, and distance he would not be able to stop,” according to a search warrant affidavit. The driver, who was southbound on U.S. 285, said he flashed his headlights to signal the driver of another vehicle in front of Popovich’s car that he planned to drive his truck through the intersection.
A witnesses who called 911 said drivers in the northbound lane on U.S. 285 had stopped for a red light “approximately five seconds prior to the crash,” according to the affidavit.
A state police officer filed the sworn affidavit to obtain a search warrant to photograph and examine the semitruck for any collision data stored in electronic devices.
Officer Thomas McClelland wrote that he read the truck driver his Miranda rights before interviewing him.
The New Mexican is not naming the truck driver because he has not been arrested or charged with a crime.
The truck driver told police that a pickup heading the same direction as Popovich on Avenida Vista Grade moved forward and stopped suddenly as if it was “merging into traffic.”
After the semitruck driver flashed his headlights, he
saw Popovich’s Mazda “come out into the intersection from behind the [pickup] truck,” the affidavit states. The semitruck driver said he tried to swerve to miss Popovich’s vehicle, and the investigator wrote that skid marks substantiated that claim.
The semitruck driver said he was going up to 55 mph when he saw the yellow light, the affidavit says.
The traffic lights at the intersection are set to turn yellow for three seconds before switching to red, according to the affidavit, and all lights at the intersection simultaneously are red for about one second. It takes the average driver one second to react to the light changing from red to green, the affidavit says.
Popovich, who lived in the Eldorado subdivision southeast of Santa Fe, was born in Pennsylvania and worked as an educator as well as a teachers union official in California before retiring to the Santa Fe area a little more than a decade ago. She became the county Democratic Party chairwoman in March.