Alamagordo, NM- A tractor-trailer rig rear-ended a church van carrying senior adults to a funeral in New Mexico Jan. 8, killing three of the vans occupants and injuring the other nine.
The deadly crash took place just outside the tiny town of Tinnie, NM, 40 miles west of Roswell, on a winding section of U.S. 70.
The van carried 11 members of First Baptist Church, Alamogordo, and one nonmember on their way to a graveside service at the town cemetery. The funeral was for the stepson of another member of the church’s senior-adult department.
As the van began a left turn into the cemetery at about 11:15 am, a tractor-trailer rig carrying 40,000 pounds of lettuce struck it from behind. After the impact, the Dodge van traveled more than 500 feet through two barbed-wire fences before landing upright in a field.
Three passengers in the van’s rear seat died at the scene. They were 70-year-old Emmet Carson, who worked as the church’s senior-adult minister, and two other church members: Flo Otto, 72, and Vera Wagner, 76. The other passengers, including the driver, the church’s 48-year-old minister of education, Garland Peek, were hospitalized. One, Barbara Hanna, 73, was in critical condition.
The driver of the truck, Bruce Miller, 45, was unhurt.
A police report said any citations stemming from the crash were pending.
Bill Jones, pastor of First Baptist Church, Tinnie, said he learned about the crash when he arrived at the cemetery about a half-mile from the church to conduct graveside services scheduled at noon. He waited with mourners inside the cemetery while emergency personnel, including four of his parishioners, cared for the injured across the highway. They proceeded with the service when the last ambulances left, about 1 p.m.,” he said.
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