State Police never dispatched an officer to a 911 call April 13 warning that people later involved in a fatal accident appeared to be drunk.
Last week, State Police Capt. Daniel Lovato said he did not know whether anyone had been dispatched. But he said this week no officers were dispatched to the call that day because none were available. Both of the officers on duty were working a domestic disturbance call and one had a prisoner, Lovato said.
A manager at Bode’s General Store in Abiquiú had made the call at 5:05 p.m. and reported seeing a purple Dodge Durango in the Bode’s parking lot before the crash that killed Richard Vialpando, 22, and brothers, Alfred Jaramillo, 21, and James Jaramillo, 23. Vialpando was driving the same vehicle on State Road 96 about six hours later when it collided head-on with the car being driven by Alfred Jaramillo. The manager had called 911 because one of the occupants of the Durango entered Bode’s and appeared intoxicated, she said.
Vialpando’s two passengers, Larry Martinez, 53, and Baltizar Martinez, 53, survived the crash.
Vialpando is suspected to have been drinking, as numerous beer cans and a vodka bottle were found in his car and on the road, according to the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Department. Blood test results confirming whether Vialpando or anyone else involved in the crash was legally intoxicated have not been released.