Officers couldn’t save man from burning car
Other driver in fiery crash may have been drunk
SANTA FE — First responders tried to save Anton Gress from inside his burning car after it was rammed by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 25 near Santa Fe on Saturday night.
But they couldn’t free the 23-year-old before flames completely engulfed his car, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Gress and the woman whose car struck his head on, Clara Avina, 44, are both dead as a result of the fiery crash. Both were from Santa Fe.
There’s evidence that Avina, who was a records clerk at the State Personnel Office, may have been driving drunk, but deputies won’t know for sure until her toxicology report comes back after an autopsy by the Office of the Medical Investigator.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Juan Rios said deputies and Santa Fe city police officers were dispatched to I-25 east of town around 11:30 p.m. Saturday after the emergency dispatch center received several 911 calls about a wrong-way driver. While officers were en route, another 911 caller reported that two cars had collided.
When deputies arrived at the scene — about two miles east of the Old Pecos Trail exit — they found Avina’s 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe completely in flames, while Gress’s Volkswagen Tiguan had a fire in the engine compartment, Rios said.
Gress was conscious when deputies arrived, but his dashboard had pinned
him in the driver’s seat. Officers used a fire extinguishers on the flames, but the Tiguan was soon engulfed in fire.
“They were making every effort to put out the fire and extract him from the wreckage, but were unsuccessful,” Rios said. “The car was fully engulfed and they were not able to save him.” On Monday, a burn spot at the accident scene was about an inch deep in the pavement.
Rios said Avina’s family told investigators that Avina, who does not have a New Mexico criminal record, was drinking before the crash. State Personnel Office spokesman Joseph Cueto said Avina has worked as a records clerk in the department since August 2015. Rios said there was no evidence that either driver hit the brakes before the crash.
Gress, a 2011 graduate of Desert Academy in Santa Fe, was a bartender at the Izanami restaurant at Ten Thousand Waves spa who also had a knack for music. “He was definitely doing some big things with his music,” 20-year-old Christopher Glenn of Albuquerque told the Journal Monday. “He was an amazing, amazing DJ.”
Glenn said he met Gress a few years ago at a show in Albuquerque and said Gress was one of the best up-and-coming DJs in New Mexico. Glenn and a few other Albuquerque musicians are planning a tribute show for Gress at an all-ages venue in either Santa Fe or Albuquerque. Gress had studied theater arts at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. “He was one of the best, kindhearted people I have yet to meet,” Glenn said. “He always went out of his way to make people happy.”