An Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo man died from injuries sustained in a car crash that occurred in La Mesilla the afternoon of March 13, according to the Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Department.
The victim was Steven Bird, 24, according to his obituary and a Sheriff’s Department deputy who asked not to be identified since the case was being by handled tribal authorities.
The car Bird was driving struck a wall between mile markers 1 and 2 on State Road 399 while apparently traveling westbound and ended up on its right side. Part of the vehicle was on fire when neighbors first reached it.
“The bottom (of the vehicle) was on fire,” neighbor John Archuleta said. “We checked his pulse, he was gone, he was dead right away. The roof came down and smashed him.”
Dispatch logs record that an emergency response helicopter was initially going to be sent to the scene but could not take off in the rain. Bird died at the scene, before paramedics arrived.
Archuleta and others used fire extinguishers to put the fire out before first responders arrived.
The first 911 calls requesting help for the accident came in at 12:22 p.m. Two callers reported the car was on fire; one said the flames had been extinguished but the car continued to smoke.
Another caller said he asked the driver if he could hear him and there was no response. John Salazar was driving a short distance behind Bird and witnessed the crash.
“He hydroplaned, tried to overcorrect, and flipped (the car) on its side,” Salazar said.
The incident was handled by Santa Clara Tribal Police, although the Sheriff’s Department is making the crash diagram, Lt. Manuel Valdez said. Because of tribal sovereignty, Valdez would not comment further on the accident. Santa Clara Tribal Police Chief Leo Montoya and the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not return calls.
Bird’s family could not be reached for comment. His father Stanley Bird is a former judge pro-tem for San Ildefenso Pueblo. His brother Shaun Bird, 27, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence at Lea County Correctional Facility after pleading guilty to two counts of attempted murder in October 2007, according to the state Corrections Department web site.