{"id":24803,"date":"2024-11-15T21:08:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T04:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-high-football-player-cited-in-fatal-head-on-collision\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:02:30","slug":"durango-high-football-player-cited-in-fatal-head-on-collision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-high-football-player-cited-in-fatal-head-on-collision\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango High football player cited in fatal head-on collision"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Braxton
Braxton Waddell, 17, of Hesperus, was cited with careless driving and speeding in a head-on collision at 11:49 a.m. Oct. 27 on U.S. 550 near mile marker 163. He was driving the blue Ford F-150 Raptor. (New Mexico State Police)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Durango High School student, who was severely injured in a head-on collision north of Aztec, reportedly caused the crash that killed an Aztec man and severely injured his two children and wife.<\/p>\n

Braxton Waddell, 17, of Hesperus, was cited with careless driving and speeding. He also did not have proof of insurance for the blue 2019 Ford F-150 Raptor he was driving. The crash occurred at 11:49 a.m. Oct. 27 on U.S. Highway 550 near mile marker 163.<\/p>\n

New Mexico State Police determined that Waddell caused the crash by \u201ctraveling southbound in the northbound lanes of traffic on U.S. 550,\u201d the report states. The case will be forwarded to the 11th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office for review.<\/p>\n

Waddell reportedly was \u201cgoing straight\u201d driving the \u201cwrong way\u201d at 67 mph in a 55 mph zone when he struck a white 2011 Ford F-150 head-on, according to the crash report from the New Mexico State Police.<\/p>\n

Waddell\u2019s \u201cspeedometer was locked out at 67 mph which indicates (this) was the approximate speed during point of impact,\u201d the New Mexico State Police report states.<\/p>\n

New Mexico State Police report that \u201cdriver inattention,\u201d and \u201cother improper driving,\u201d on the part of Waddell, caused the crash that killed Robert Garcia, 38, and injured his wife, Catherine Garcia, 38, and their 15-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, the report states.<\/p>\n

\"Braxton
Braxton Waddell of Durango High School on the sidelines in 2023. He now faces charges including careless driving after the pickup he drove collided head-on with a pickup carrying a couple and their two children.<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Robert Garcia died at the scene, while Catherine suffered \u201cmultiple fractures, a broken left leg\u201d and \u201cabdominal injuries.\u201d She was flown to UNM Hospital in Albuquerque for treatment, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Both Garcia children suffered internal injuries and also were flown to UNM Hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n

Waddell suffered a \u201cfractured back and some abdominal pain,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

NMSP officers state in the report that they attempted to speak with Waddell regarding the crash, but \u201chis parents spoke for him and advised he did not remember anything about the crash,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

Waddell\u2019s parents also reportedly \u201cadvised they would not answer any questions without a lawyer present,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

NMSP also stated in the report that because there were \u201cno obvious signs of impairment,\u201d the crash reconstruction team would not respond. Officers did note the weather was clear and they \u201cdid not observe tire or skid marks on the roadway from either vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was reposted Friday night to replace the photo after readers raised questions about whether the photo revealed that a victim could be seen inside the truck. <\/em><\/p>\n

This article was updated at 1:12 a.m. Nov. 16 to include a state from the New Mexico State Police Report regarding the speedometer\u2019s approximate speed at the point of impact.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

two injured children was killed; wife also injured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78682,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24803\/revisions\/78682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24803"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}