A fatal crash with no citation? Police cite loophole in New Mexico law

Yahoo

04-05-2025

A recent fatal crash involving a Santa Fe city bus driver appears to point to a loophole in New Mexico's statutes and raises a question: Is it possible for a driver to kill someone without being cited for even a traffic violation if the collision doesn't occur on a roadway?
The answer, according to Santa Fe police and a local attorney, is yes.
"What's surprising is that it does seem like something fell between the cracks, but at the same time, these have been the laws for a long time," attorney John Day said.
City bus driver Robert Armijo was on duty, driving a city-owned Honda Civic, one day in late March when he struck and killed 75-year-old Glen Smith, who was sitting on a bus stop bench outside the Santa Fe Place mall.
Armijo told police he had meant to put the car in reverse, but it moved forward, and instead of pressing down on the brakes — as he meant to do — he put his foot on the gas pedal twice, according to reports. The Civic jumped over a curb and onto a median and struck the bench where Smith was sitting, pinning Smith under the car.
Smith, a longtime appraiser at Stephen's A Consignment Gallery, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Reports from the Santa Fe police investigation into the crash indicate officers found cause to charge Armijo with careless driving, a petty misdemeanor, but he wasn't charged "since the crash occurred on private property."
Day said he agreed with the investigators' conclusions after reviewing the relevant state statutes.
The driver doesn't appear to have shown signs of driving "recklessly, wantonly or willfully," which is the standard for "criminal negligence" a prosecutor would need to pursue a case of involuntary manslaughter, he noted.
Instead, the case likely boiled down to a possible charge of either careless driving or reckless driving — two charges with different legal standards for prosecution — Day said. While "reckless driving" could occur on private property, the statute for careless driving includes language stating an incident must occur "on highways" for a driver to be charged, and past rulings have held the charge does not apply to driving that takes place in a parking lot.
Santa Fe attorney Tom Clark highlighted the differences between careless driving and reckless driving.
"You can't be charged for vehicular homicide just for driving in a careless manner," Clark said. "A lot of vehicular homicide cases deal with the question of 'carelessness' versus 'recklessness,' which is either driving under the influence or speeding plus other things, like running stop signs or something like that."
Clark emphasized the words "willful or wanton" in the state statute on reckless driving — which involves driving "carelessly and heedlessly in willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others." He noted it is "a pretty high standard."
Police said they didn't file a charge of careless driving against Armijo because the incident took place on private property, reasoning the bus stop was privately owned by the owners of Santa Fe Place. The city has been granted "conditional access privileges" to the property, police said.
Day said that appears to be in accordance with the law, including the provision requiring careless driving to take place "on highways."
The owners of the mall and its parking lot — New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group — did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
State lawmakers who are concerned about careless drivers falling through that loophole — by, say, driving carelessly in parking lots — might take a look at the language in the statute, he said.
For police to enforce traffic laws in the mall parking lot, Day said, the mall's owners would likely need to provide written permission, and the city would need to pass an ordinance saying as much.
State Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, said in a recent interview the fatal crash in Santa Fe was "not the first time" she has heard of the location of a crash — on private property — being the distinguishing factor as to whether or not certain traffic laws can be enforced.
Chandler said she would like to hear from law enforcement about how often the private property question poses an impediment to enforcing traffic laws.
"It's worth taking a look at because there could be other situations, and obviously this one is horrifically tragic," she said. "We don't want to be, as you say, 'out for blood,' but it's that there is no accountability mechanism at this point, from what I'm interpreting the police to be telling us."
Santa Fe police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez noted a bill was proposed in the recent legislative session that would have allowed officers to charge a driver with a careless driving offense if an incident on private property results in "great bodily injury" or death, making it a fourth-degree felony. During a committee hearing in March, Valdez spoke in support of the bill on behalf of the department, he said, but it was not advanced.
"The discussion has started, and I am hopeful it will have an opportunity to be considered in a future legislative session," Valdez said.
Several other careless driving charges have been filed in Santa Fe County so far this year. In one, a man was charged by a New Mexico State Police officer for driving 55 mph on Interstate 25 without having his emergency lights on, and in another, a man was charged by a Santa Fe County sheriff's deputy in Nambé for striking a stopped car when he apparently made too wide of a turn, according to court records.
"In this case, you've just got to have criminal negligence or this recklessness — this willful disregard, you know," Day said, acknowledging the Armijo case didn't appear to meet the standard for reckless driving. "As surprising as it is, it may just be something that is relegated to the civil courts — like, if the estate of this poor guy wanted to sue the city."
A wrongful death lawsuit would likely proceed the same way with or without a traffic or criminal citation, Day said, based on the facts presented by the police investigation. While a criminal case would need to prove "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," a potential civil case would need to prove negligence based only on "a preponderance of the evidence," he noted.
Day criticized the Santa Fe Police Department's initial finding of "no driver error" on Armijo's part, which appeared in a crash report released in the weeks after the incident. He called it an "absurd" finding and said it "raised questions about the independence of the investigation."
"If they claim that the investigation shows there's no criminal charge, that's one thing," he said. "And that's why, I would think, if you're a taxpayer in the city, you might want an outside agency investigating something like that, that involves a city employee, but that's not how they chose to do it."
In response, Valdez pointed to past statements about the crash report, in which he said the department "filed and made public the initial crash investigation for this incident prematurely," adding "the investigation remains active and the forwarding of the report should have been done once complete."
A report disclosed by the agency states the case was closed in April, but Valdez said the department is "still evaluating all avenues to determine if the officer can lawfully charge or issue a citation."