Details emerge in fatal I-40 crash, pileup during Texas-New Mexico winter storm

From Staff Reports
Updated ·1 min read
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New Mexico State Police responded to a fatal crash involving a vehicle and a semi on Interstate 40 Monday during a winter storm. The crash led to a multi-vehicle pileup, and the interstate was closed westbound from Amarillo to the New Mexico state line.
New Mexico State Police responded to a fatal crash involving a vehicle and a semi on Interstate 40 Monday during a winter storm. The crash led to a multi-vehicle pileup, and the interstate was closed westbound from Amarillo to the New Mexico state line.

GUADALUPE COUNTY, NM – More details have been released about Monday's fatal crash that resulted in a multi-vehicle pileup on Interstate 40 during a major winter storm.

White-out conditions and snow-covered roadways impacted travel during the storm, which included parts of New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, and prompted the Texas Department of Public Safety to announce several road closures around Amarillo and across the region Monday, including Interstate 40 at Soncy Road in Amarillo westbound up to the New Mexico state line.

Related: Winter storm brings blizzard to Texas Panhandle, blustery wind to South Plains

An update from New Mexico state police, issued on Thursday, detailed that officials arrived at a reported fatal crash on Interstate 40 around milepost 291, east of Santa Rosa just before 10 a.m. Monday.

The initial investigation indicated that a semi-tractor trailer, driven by a 21-year-old from Indianapolis, Indiana, was traveling west on I-40 when, for reasons still under investigation, it rear-ended a passenger van being driven by David James McGarrah, 71, of Neosho, Missouri, which also had a 70-year-old passenger.

Medical personnel took McGarrah and the passenger to a local hospital, where McGarrah was later pronounced dead by the Office of the Medical Investigator. The extent of the passenger's injuries is not known. The semi-truck driver was not injured.

Following the initial crash, around 43 vehicles were involved in the following pileup, with multiple injuries reported. Police said the extent of those injuries and details of the pileup remain under investigation. Inclement weather and driver inattention are believed to have contributed to the crash, according to police.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Details emerge after Interstate 40 fatal winter crash, 43-car pileup