Police: Impaired driver hit school bus, fled
Española woman charged with DWI after allegedly causing second crash
An Española Public Schools bus completing its morning rounds was rear-ended around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday by a pickup driven by a woman who police suspect was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
New Mexico State Police said in a news release that 23-yearold Gabriella Uzueta allegedly caused a separate collision later that morning and had fled both crashes.
No one in the bus was hurt, the statement said. The bus was carrying eight middle and high school students, one of whom captured the truck’s license plate on a cellphone video.
According to the state police news release, Uzueta, behind the wheel of a blue Dodge Dakota, ran into the back of the school bus while it was stopped ith its stop sign and lights activated on N.M. 399 near County Road 110 in La Mesilla, just south of Española.
Witnesses at the scene told officers the woman had gotten out of her truck and began arguing with the bus driver before fleeing.
Police pulled over Uzueta, an Española resident, about half an hour after the incident, according to the news release. By that point, state police said, she had caused a second hit-and-run crash and her pickup had some damage, including a flat tire. Española police were investigating the second incident, at the intersection of Riverside and Fairview drives in Española.
Uzueta was slurring her speech when officers pulled her over, state police said, and she failed a field sobriety test. When she was taken to the state police office in Española, the release said, she refused a blood draw to determine her blood-alcohol content and was booked in the Rio Arriba County jail in Tierra Amarilla on suspicion of DWI, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license.
Court records show that Uzueta in July was charged with evading an officer and concealing her identity during a traffic stop. She pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed for lack of prosecution, according to court records.