An Albuquerque police officer was left with minor scrapes after a driver slammed into their vehicle at the intersection of San Pedro Drive SE and Zuni Road SE, and that driver is now facing a DWI charge. Police said the officer was T-boned at the intersection, and the man behind the wheel was arrested shortly after.
According to KOAT, the man was arrested and is facing a DWI charge after crashing into the Albuquerque Police Department officer earlier that day. The station reported that the officer suffered minor scrapes, and that no other information was provided by police about the man, his age, or how the crash unfolded.
What We Still Don't Know
The station described the incident as a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available. Beyond the location of the crash and the nature of the officer's injuries, few other details have been released, including anything about the circumstances that led to the collision.
This isn't the first time an APD officer has been struck by a driver in a T-bone collision. Back in 2019, the same outlet reported that an officer was T-boned at the intersection of Constitution and Eubank and sustained minor injuries before being taken to a nearby hospital, per the station's earlier report.
DWI Arrests Climbing Statewide
The crash arrives against a backdrop of rising DWI enforcement numbers across New Mexico. A 2023 report from the University of New Mexico found that the state recorded 8,928 DWI arrests that year, a 5.6 percent increase from 2022, according to gps.unm.edu. Bernalillo County, home to Albuquerque, accounted for 2,138 of those arrests, a 15.9 percent jump from the year before, the same report shows.
Collisions involving law enforcement vehicles and suspected impaired drivers aren't limited to New Mexico. In Virginia, Fairfax County police said a 26-year-old man from Arizona was arrested for driving while intoxicated after his car struck an unoccupied marked DWI enforcement cruiser in Springfield, as reported by FOX 5 DC. In that case, the officer was outside the cruiser conducting a traffic stop at the time, and police said no one was hurt, though the cruiser sustained significant damage.
No further details on the Albuquerque driver's identity, the exact circumstances of the crash, or any court proceedings have been released. Hoodline will update this story as more information becomes available.
