By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Raton Police were on scene within seconds of a crash just north of Tiger Drive and Brilliant last night about midnight.
Officers witnessed a car driving at a very high rate of speed fly through the intersection of Tiger Drive and Brilliant and continue north into the Northern New Mexico Gas Company yard striking an eight inch, eight foot pipe cemented in the ground that was pulled completely out. The vehicle continue on and took out a wooden light pole before it struck a propane truck parked in the back of the yard where the car finally came to rest on its top to the west of the propane truck.
The passenger in the vehicle was pulled from the car and taken to MCMC and later flown out to UNM Hospital in Albuquerque. The driver of the vehicle, Slade Matthew Maes (36) of Trinidad had to be extricated from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene by the Office of the Medical Investigator.
Speed was a definite factor in the crash and police found several beer cans in and around the vehicle and are awaiting results of a blood test for alcohol.
