The warnings on prescription bottles range from boring and mundane, such as “may be taken on an empty stomach or with food,” to the painfully obvious, such as “for external use only, do not ingest,” to the perplexing, such as “do not eat grapefruit within three hours of taking this medicine. Many of the medications that are of such interest outside the medical community that they are listed under the Controlled Substances Act bear warnings that you should not drive while taking them, or soon enough after taking them that you can still feel their effects. Living with a chronic illness means timing and dosing your medications so that you can manage your symptoms and still drive when you need to, or else find another way of getting where you need to go. No matter how careful you are, you can still experience unexpected symptoms. If you were injured in a car accident arising from you or another driver having an unexpected medical episode, contact a Santa Fe car accident lawyer.
Pedestrian Airlifted After Being Struck by Unconscious Driver
In January 2026, a 56-year-old woman briefly lost consciousness while driving on Lohman Avenue in Las Cruces. This episode caused her to lose control of her Hyundai Palisade and veer from the center lane into the left lane, sideswiping two cars there, namely a Toyota Sedan and a GMC Sierra. When it reached the intersection with Walton Boulevard, it veered to the right and crossed the intersection diagonally and crashed into a Chevrolet Silverado that was stopped on the far side of the intersection, waiting to turn. After the impact, both vehicles jumped the curb and struck two men who were standing on the sidewalk.
One of the two pedestrians, a 48-year-old man, required cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before transport to the Mountainview Regional Medical Center. When he arrived at the hospital, doctors ordered a helicopter to airlift him to University Medical Center in El Paso. The other pedestrian, a 40-year-old man, was also transported by ambulance to Mountainview Regional Medical Center, as were three other people who had been riding in the various vehicles, including the driver of the Hyundai Palisade.
When first responders arrived, the driver of the Hyundai had regained consciousness and was able to talk to them about her medical conditions, although news reports gave few details about why she lost consciousness while driving. Determining fault for the accident will depend on whether the driver could reasonably have known that it was unsafe for her to drive and on whether her medical episode was the result of an error by a doctor or pharmacist.
Contact Slate Stern About Car Accidents Lawsuits
Slate Stern is a personal injury lawyer who represents plaintiffs injured in car accidents in New Mexico, where a driver lost control of the car because he or she suffered a medical emergency while driving. Contact Slate Stern in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or call (505)814-1517 to discuss your case.
Sources
Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash