You know you are young when the summertime fills you with excitement. For adults, the summer means oppressively expensive air conditioning bills and unpleasantly hot commutes to work; it also means worrying that your children are at home glued to their devices since you can’t afford to send them to summer camp, and you only hope that creepy adults and sinister chatbots are not asking them for passwords or worse. The exhilaration of summer is the greatest for teens who are old enough to have a driver’s license but not mature enough to stay out of trouble or experienced enough at driving to avoid dangerous mistakes. This also means that the summer is a terrifying time for anyone who used to be a former teen, who piled into the backseat with three friends or rode shotgun as the buddy who had a license drove down the highway at speeds that would make Wile E. Coyote’s Roadrunner catch his breath.
The fact that you are still here to feel a chill in your bones when a teen brags about getting a driver’s license means that you know how much worse it could have been. If you got injured in an accident caused by a teen driver, contact a Santa Fe car accident lawyer.
Teen Who Left the Scene of Fatal Accident Could Be Charged as an Adult in Criminal Court
On August 3, 2026, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a car striking a pedestrian. The caller who reported the accident said that the driver left the scene of the accident. Witnesses said that a pedestrian was crossing Coors Boulevard at a crosswalk in southwest Albuquerque. Several minutes before 9:00 in the evening, a vehicle traveling north ran a red light and struck the pedestrian near the intersection of Coors and Sage.
The pedestrian was severely injured but still alive when first responders arrived. The first responders attempted to save the pedestrian’s life, but he eventually died at the scene of the accident. News reports did not release his name or age.
Witnesses described the vehicle that caused the accident. Police eventually found a vehicle that matched the description. The vehicle also had damage consistent with having struck a pedestrian. The person who was driving the car at the time of the accident was a 17-year-old minor. He is currently facing charges for homicide by vehicle and for leaving the scene of an accident resulting in great bodily injury or death. The investigation is ongoing, so police could also file additional charges. The teen driver may be charged in adult criminal court because of his age and the severity of the charges, especially if he has previously been adjudicated delinquent in the juvenile justice system. The victim’s family has the right to file a civil lawsuit regardless of the outcome of the criminal case.
Contact Slate Stern About Car Accident Lawsuits
Slate Stern is a personal injury lawyer who represents plaintiffs injured in car accidents in New Mexico. Contact Slate Stern in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or call (505)814-1517 to discuss your case.
Sources
https://www.koat.com/article/one-person-dead-after-fatal-crash-on-coors-and-sage/73339396
Photo by Ryan Porter on Unsplash