8 deaths since January

State and local police are dedicating more traffic patrols to State Highway 128 in light of a spate of fatal accidents on the highway in southern Lea County this year, although there are no major plans or designs to make it safer.

Excessive speeding along the two-lane highway is rampant, particularly by pressed oilfield workers attempting to make more hauls and therefore more money, law enforcement officials told road officials at a meeting in Hobbs last week.

Speeding, fatigue and driver inattention are the most common causes for crashes on local highways, said New Mexico State Police Sgt. Sam Clouthier.

“Most of these crashes are preventable,” Clouthier said at Wednesday’s meeting of the Southeastern New Mexico Roadway Safety Integrated Project, a group started by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in August 2012 after the traffic deaths of two WIPP employees.

Eight people have died since January as a result of traffic accidents along State Highway 128 in Lea County. Most recently, an Odessa man was killed July 21, at about 6 p.m. on a Saturday night, in a head-on collision between Jal and Loving, near Brininstool Road.

State police said the initial investigation indicated the 28-year-old Odessa man was driving eastbound when he crossed the centerline for unknown reasons and struck a commercial motor vehicle head-on. The CMV driver, a 40-year-old Odessa man, suffered minor injuries and his passenger, a 38-year-old Santa Fe woman, was transported to an area hospital.

The 28-year-old Odessa man’s death was the third Highway 128 fatality in a week’s time. Police said alcohol appeared to have been a contributing factor in the crash.

THE NIGHT OF JULY 16, a westbound truck crossed the centerline for unknown reasons and struck an eastbound truck, around mile post 20, near the Lea County-Eddy County line.

The driver of the westbound truck, a 33-year-old man from Buffalo, Texas, and his passenger, a 41-year-old Fort Worth man, both suffered fatal injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the other truck, a 27-year-old Carlsbad man, was transported to a hospital in Odessa.

In total, there were three fatalities on the stretch of highway in Lea County in July, one in April, three in March and one in January.

Tim Parker, the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s district engineer for southeastern New Mexico, said there’s not a common denominator in the slew of Highway 128 fatalities.

“There is not a common theme, meaning there’s one part of a roadway that seems to have more accidents, like fatalities and others,” Parker said. “There seems to be a trend of a lot of bad driving, distracted driving, people on their cellphones, people over speed, trucks overweight. There seems to be a trend of that. That trend has been here for at least the last 10 or 12 years. We can kind of show that through some of the police reports and other data that we have.”

Parker said Highway 128 is the equivalent of U.S. 285 of two or three years ago in terms of traffic.

“Is it an issue? Yes,” Parker said of recent fatalities on Highway 128. “Are we taking care of the pavement and trying to put shoulders on it? Yes.”

Parker said the state is investing in upgrades of Highway 128, considering its increased traffic flow, particularly due to oilfield activity.

“WE’VE HAD SEVERAL multi-million-dollar projects just in the last two years on 128,” Parker said. “I need $6 million to do a study. It’s in my top five priorities.

“We’re trying to keep up. We’re trying to raise awareness.”

Clouthier said state police are more heavily patrolling Highway 128 considering the recent fatalities, but he said when police shift resources, issues arise elsewhere.

Clouthier also said state police currently have four commercial vehicle officers, six uniformed officers and two sergeants assigned to Eddy County, and two commercial vehicle officers, seven uniformed officers and two sergeants assigned to Lea County.

“Hopefully we can reduce the crashes and the speeders and all these issues we’re having with state road 128,” Clouthier said.

Clouthier said road conditions have not been a factor in recent fatal crashes on local highways.

“I don’t blame the roads,” he said. “The roads have gotten bad and they’ve gotten better and we still seem to find the same crashes happen over and over. So, I don’t blame road conditions or lack of enforcement. It’s just the industry. The guys are in a hurry, they work a lot of hours, they don’t get very much sleep. A lot of the fatality crashes that we’ve had have either been fatigue, falling asleep or alcohol-related.”

Clouthier said the last three fatalities on Highway 128 were a result of drivers passing other vehicles in no-passing zones.

“And then they have a vehicle coming toward them and they can’t get over in time, so they end up in a head-on crash,” he said.

Clouthier said he has heard from oilfield drivers about the pressures they face to meet deadlines. He said state police often conduct safety meetings for new drivers of oilfield companies.

“We know what’s going on,” Clouthier said. “They’re telling them to hurry so they can make more money.”

Lea County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Victor Hernandez said the recent crashes along Highway 128 that he is aware of have been a result of “speeding, fatigue, and driver inattention.”

Hernandez said the sheriff’s office, with a maximum of six deputies per shift, executed 55 traffic stops in a four-hour period the morning of Aug. 1 along highways in southern Lea County.

SHERIFF DEPUTIES ISSUED 28 citations and 27 written warnings during the timeframe. Hernandez said all 55 traffic stops were executed because of speeding.

“We have been running 128 and south of Jal very, very, very hard,” Hernandez said. “You just have to slow down.

“It is what it is. With the (oil and natural gas) industry, unfortunately, many people get paid by the load. The more loads you do, the more money you get paid.”

Hernandez said sheriff deputies don’t like issuing citations, especially to commercial drivers, because of the negative implications on their employment.

“At some point, we see the same face over and over, the same sticker on the side of the truck over and over,” Hernandez said. “That’s when we have to enforce it. And we will, and we have and will continue to do so.”

Jeff Tucker can be reached at managingeditor@hobbsnews.com .