The Texas Department of Public Safety was busy in the area over the holiday weekend working two traffic fatalities across the south plains.
On Saturday the 25th DPS investigated a two vehicle accident in Yoakum County. A 2021 Jeep Compass driven by 20year-old Gage Emijedio Sandoval of Carlsbad, New Mexico was traveling northbound on FM 769 about 15 miles southwest of Plains. The vehicle failed to yield to a stop sign on US Highway 62 and pulled directly into the path of a 2023 Ford Edge driven by Pipper Madalyn Satre age 23 of Lovington New Mexico.
All three in the occupants in the Jeep were pronounced dead on the scene including the driver Sandoval and passengers Crystal Mendoza, 40, of Clovis and Javier Esparza Quinonez,43, of Clovis.
Satre was transported to Nor-Lea Hospital in Lovington with serious injuries. Two minors ages three-year-old and twoyears- old were not injured in the crash.
On Tuesday, November 21, DPS investigated the death of Jonathan Michael Weldy, age 31 of Hobbs, New Mexico. Weldy, driving at 2008 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, was reported northbound in the southbound lane of U.S. Highway 62 near Ropesville.
The report states the vehicle left the roadway into a gravel parking lot of cotton gin. The pickup went through the lot striking the east side of the gin building and a diesel storage tank on the north end of the property. The vehicle filled before coming to a rest, catching on fire. Weldy, the driver and only individual involved in the accident, was pronounced dead at the scene.