Valencia County, NM – On February 20, 2021, at around 5:35 p.m. the New Mexico State Police was alerted to a two-vehicle head-on collision on New Mexico State Road 116 near Mill Road south of Belen, NM.
The initial investigation indicates that a 2007 Dodge passenger vehicle was traveling south on SR 116 when for reasons still under investigation it crossed the center line and collided head-on with a 1998 Toyota passenger vehicle that was traveling north on SR 116.
The driver of the Toyota, Robert Abeyta SR., 80, of Albuquerque sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased on scene by the Office of the Medical Investigator. The driver of the Dodge, a sixty-two-year-old male of Veguita, NM was uninjured. There were two adult passengers in the Toyota, they were transported to an area hospital for injuries not believed to be life-threatening.
Alcohol is not suspected in this crash and seatbelts were used. This case is still under investigation by the New Mexico State Police with no additional information currently available.