Police: Wrong-way driver arrested on aggravated DWI charges after 4-car wreck

Aug. 10--Santa Fe police Officer Heinz De Luca could see the flashing lights of an ambulance ahead on Cerrillos Road at the same time an emergency dispatcher on the radio Tuesday night said a driver in a gray Honda Civic was traveling northbound in a southbound lane.

A minute later, De Luca heard the dispatcher announce a head-on collision near Navajo Drive. When the officer arrived at the scene a few minutes later, four cars were stopped on Cerrillos, severely damaged, and emergency workers were trying to extricate drivers from three of them, according to the police report De Luca filed.

One of the damaged vehicles was a gray Honda Civic with a partially collapsed roof and driver Keith Joe Romero, 38, inside, holding a broken cellphone in one hand, the report says. De Luca reported smelling alcohol on Romero's breath.

By the time the night was over, two people in the accident, including Romero, an Albuquerque resident, had been taken by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. Police later arrested Romero on four counts, including great bodily injury by vehicle, reckless driving, driving without proof of insurance and aggravated driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Romero had a prior arrest, in 2004, on charges of aggravated DWI and not staying in his lane, but that case was dismissed, online court records show.

Tuesday's four-way crash shut down traffic along Cerrillos Road in both directions from 11:40 p.m. until nearly 5 a.m. Wednesday as police investigated the scene and tow trucks removed the wreckage.

A Santa Fe firefighter told De Luca he saw the gray Honda traveling northbound on the southbound side of Cerrillos Road near St. Michael's Drive before the crash. Witnesses said the Honda picked up speed as it traveled north in the wrong lane.

De Luca's report says Romero told him later at the hospital that he had consumed mixed drinks containing vodka about an hour before the accident. Romero said he didn't remember being in a crash, De Luca's report said. The officer requested a blood sample, gave Romero a field sobriety test and arrested him.

One of the other drivers injured in the crash, Brenda Jimenez-Rodriguez, suffered six fractured ribs, a lacerated spleen and a lung contusion, the report says.

Romero was booked into the Santa Fe County jail after he was released from the hospital.

Contact Staci Matlock at 505-986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com. Follow her on Twitter @StaciMatlock.

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