By Peggy Platonos
The Silver City Sun-News
SILVER CITY, NM — A Mimbres Valley woman was pinned inside her SUV for more than an hour while ambulance personnel removed the windshield and used the Jaws of Life to pry open the roof of the vehicle after it flipped on its side Tuesday evening.
The accident happened on Route 35 near the Elk Crossing Cafe at Fowler’s in the upper Mimbres Valley as Cornelia Castillo, 51, was towing a small pickup truck on a chain behind her Toyota Tundra.
Her husband, Raul Villagran, 61, was at the wheel of the pickup as it was being towed. He said they were traveling at a low speed, around 25 miles per hour, when his truck drifted too close to the rear of the vehicle his wife was driving. He braked to take up slack in the chain and the Tundra spun in the road, causing the tow chain to wrap around it. The chain lifted the passenger side just as the driver’s side tires hit the soft shoulder, and the SUV tipped onto its side, trapping Castillo behind the wheel. The pickup truck that was being towed ended up tight against the rear bumper of the Tundra, with both vehicles facing back the way they had come. Villagran was not injured.
The first ambulance crew on the scene called in a second ambulance with an Emergency Medical Technician on board to examine Castillo before they extracted her from the vehicle. She was experiencing pain in one arm and in her hip, and they wanted to be sure there was no back injury before moving her, Villagran said.
Castillo was transported by ambulance to Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City for evaluation and treatment. According to her granddaughter, Victoria Martinez, Castillo’s only injury was a fractured left arm. She was treated at the hospital and released in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Two State Police officers and three Grant County sheriff’s deputies were on the scene of the accident, along with the two ambulances and a fire engine. Senior patrolman Ramon Terrazas of the State Police was the investigating officer. Terrazas said that the investigation would continue, and a final report would not be available until early next week, but it was unlikely that any charges would be filed.
Republished with permission from The Silver City Sun-News