Two Rio Arriba County women died Tuesday night in a head-on collision that closed Highway 84 for almost four hours near Medanales.
June Archuleta, 54, of Medanales, and Eva Angelina Olney, 30, of Chama, showed no signs of life when emergency responders arrived at the scene around 9:40 p.m., Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputy James Lujan said. Neither woman was wearing a seat belt, Lujan said.
A witness who was driving north behind Archuleta’s green Jeep told deputies the two vehicles crashed when Olney, who was driving south, abruptly swerved her black Hyundai into the northbound lane, Lujan and Turner said.
“They didn’t even have time to react,” Lujan said. “In a second, boom, it happened.”
Tire marks indicate neither woman had the opportunity to brake or swerve to avoid the collision. A witness told deputies Archuleta was driving at around 55 miles per hour, or five miles per hour below the speed limit, Turner and Lujan said. Olney’s travel speed was unknown, but appeared to be about 60 miles per hour based on the damage to the cars, Lujan said.
Lujan said he detected an odor of alcohol within Olney’s car, but found no open containers in either car. Lujan said he would not feel comfortable naming alcohol as a factor in the crash until the state Office of the Medical Investigator issues a toxicology report.
Emergency responders were clearing the scene when Archuleta’s daughter, Tracy Archuleta, of Medanales, drove up to the where the highway had been closed to traffic. She told deputies she drove out to search for her mother, who was late returning from her job at Wal-Mart, Lujan and deputy J.B. Turner said.
When deputies asked Tracy Archuleta to identify her mother’s drivers license, she screamed and collapsed to the ground.
The highway was closed to both northbound and southbound traffic between Medanales and Tierra Azul until about 1:20 a.m.