Collision prompts concerns about hazardous driving

CLOVIS — A truck plowed through a fence and spun around in the front lawn of a Clovis residence Monday night, sending two of its occupants to the hospital and prompting renewed concerns over hazardous driving conditions in the neighborhood.

Clovis Fire Chief Mike Nolen said responders were dispatched around 8:45 p.m. that night to a report of a single-vehicle collision on the 2400 block of Axtell Street.

“The vehicle had missed the turn and wound up in a pipe fence,” Nolen said, referring to a curve in the road near the intersection of East Manana Boulevard and North Axtell Street where the wreck occurred.

Ada Lindo said she and her grandson were inside their house when they heard a loud boom in their front yard.

“It was a very terrible experience,” she said, describing the smoke, shouting and commotion that ensued. “I was in shock.”

Frank Martinez said he was next door with his wife when they heard the crash, which immediately put them and other neighbors into action.

“We were just watching TV and heard a big old bang, and the dogs went crazy,” he said. “It wasn’t ordinary to see that.”

Martinez said he helped break the glass on the passenger side window and assisted removing that passenger and another from the back seat out of the truck.

“We watch out for each other,” he said of the fast response from neighbors.

So badly damaged was the truck that firefighters had to use the jaws of life to extract the driver, Nolen said.

“They took the driver door off and we transported two (of the truck occupants) to the hospital,” he told The News. Ambulances reached Plains Regional Medical Center around 9:15 p.m.

Clovis Police did not respond Tuesday to a request for information on the crash, and there were no charges in online court records pertaining to the reported driver, who also did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

Perry Whitley, a back seat passenger in Monday’s crash, told The News that he believed the driver was still in the hospital Tuesday with a few broken ribs but might be released that same day. He said the front-seat passenger was treated and released from PRMC with a few staples in his leg, and that he himself had some soreness but did not require medical attention.

He said the three had been at Walmart and were en route to Taco Bell when the driver suddenly passed out at the wheel just as they were approaching the curve at the intersection, eastbound on Manana.

Rolando Lindo said he believes the truck must have been going well above the posted 25 mile-per-hour speed limit to have knocked through the hundred-pound pipes making the horizontal beams on his fence. He said some of those poles, once detached, became projectiles that hurtled against his house.

The heavy barrier on the front lawn was there with the house when it was purchased 17 years ago, Lindo said, but on Monday night “it proved its worth.”

Lindo said he plans to rebuild the fence there, this time with additional cables for reinforcement. If not for that fence and a large tree on his front lawn, he believes the truck might have charged through his living room.

Residents hope the city can do something about the speeding near that curved intersection which they say is all too common.

“It would be a significant safety improvement for the city if they would put up a four-way stop at Axtell and Manana,” Lindo observed. “Or if not that then speed bumps.”

His neighbor Martinez said he believed problem motorists would disregard more stop signs, but agreed something should be done. He recalled instances of wrecks near the intersection in past years and suggested more police presence in the area might deter speeders.

“There are always, always people (driving too fast) down Manana,” he said. “They need to do something, but I don’t know what.”