6-year-old and father killed in Rail Runner crash

Jul. 25—Authorities have identified the two people killed Sunday when the Rail Runner crashed into a vehicle near San Felipe Pueblo as a 6-year-old girl and her father.

Police responded to the crash near milepost 15 on N.M. 313 around 11:15 a.m. They said in the release that 30-year-old Derrick Tenorio, of Santo Domingo Pueblo, died in the crash. State Police declined to identify the child who was killed, but a spokesman said she was Tenorio's daughter.

Tenorio was heading east, toward State Road 313, in a 2014 Jeep Cherokee and tried to drive across a private railroad crossing when the train crashed into the vehicle, according to an initial investigation.

Both he and his daughter were pronounced dead on scene.

Rail Runner spokeswoman Augusta Meyers said while the private crossing Tenorio tried to use doesn't have mechanical arms that lower when a train is passing, it does have stop signs.

Private crossings, which are often used to transport farming equipment and get very little use, don't need to have mechanical arms, she said.

"My heart goes out to (the family)," she said.

Around 90 people were aboard the southbound train when it crashed into the Jeep. None of the train's passengers were injured.

They were taken the rest of the way on another train, and Meyers said the Rail Runner was back up and running by late Sunday.

Since 2006, she estimates, roughly seven people have been killed by Rail Runner trains.

State Police spokesman Dusty Francisco said the agency is conducting an investigation into exactly what happened, but he didn't have an estimate on when that would be completed.

"They have to go over every aspect of what happened," he said.