When police witness a car accident, as opposed to driving to the scene in response to a 911 call, they can usually tell whether to suspect that one of the drivers involved is drunk before they get close enough to see whether either of the drivers smells like alcohol or is slurring their words. Some accidents result from mistakes that anyone could make. Especially if visibility is poor and the roads are icy or wet, it is easy to collide with a car when you misjudge a lane change. Likewise, rear-end collisions at low speed in heavy traffic are common and do not normally lead police to suspect that the at-fault driver is drunk.
By contrast, no one who is in their right mind crosses the center lane of traffic and drives in the wrong direction. When police see someone driving against traffic, they automatically suspect drunkenness or drug intoxication. The police seeing a driver going the wrong way and conducting a traffic stop is the best-case scenario. Driving in the opposite direction of traffic is a leading cause of head-on collisions, which have a higher rate of fatalities than most other angles of collision. If you were injured in a car accident where the at-fault driver was driving into oncoming traffic, contact a Santa Fe car accident lawyer.
Woman Suffers Injuries After Drunk Driver Collides Head-On With Her Car
On a Friday night in September 2025, a car was driving west in the eastbound lanes of St. Michael’s Drive in Bloomfield. Near the intersection with Warner Avenue, a car that was traveling east, as it was supposed to do, struck the car that was going the wrong way. The woman in the eastbound car suffered two broken legs. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican website, the injured woman was 53 years old, but news reports did not release her name.
As for the at-fault driver, she is Starlyn Staley, 32. When police approached her car, they immediately noticed that she seemed drunk. They asked her if she had been drinking, and she said that she had been drinking vodka. When an officer asked her how much vodka she had consumed, she said, “Enough to take a sobriety test.” The officer asked her to stand up, but Staley was unsteady on her feet. She fell before the officer could give her instructions for the sobriety test.
Staley is currently facing criminal charges for reckless driving, open container of an alcoholic beverage in the car, driving with an expired license, and DWI resulting in serious bodily injury. Police arrested her, but instead of taking her to jail, they took her to a hospital for observation.
Contact Slate Stern About DWI Accident Lawsuits
Slate Stern is a personal injury lawyer who represents plaintiffs injured in accidents involving drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs. Contact Slate Stern in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or call (505)814-1517 to discuss your case.
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Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash