NEW MEXICO – Ramon Grajeda-Beltran, a Colorado man who survived a bus crash in New Mexico that killed three people including his wife last July has filed a lawsuit in the state District Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He and his wife, Olga Hernandez-Beltran, of Rocky Ford were passengers on a commercial bus traveling from Denver to El Paso, Texas that overturned after colliding with a car and then was struck by a tractor-trailer.
Hernandez-Beltran was one of three women killed in the crash on Interstate 25 north of Bernalillo. Grajeda-Beltran was among 22 injured passengers. The lawsuit also alleges a lack of seat belts in the bus was a contributing factor in the death of his wife of more than 38 years.
25 others were injured, including three young children. The Greyhound bus carrying nearly 50 people was headed west along Interstate 40 last August when a semitrailer going in the opposite direction lost the tread on its left front tire and veered across the median and smashed into the bus. The front of the bus was mangled, the cab of the semi was flipped and the trailer was on its side as debris was scattered across the highway. Authorities identified the bus driver as 49-year old Luis Alvarez, of Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
