Eddy County, NM – On May 21, 2021, at about 10:45 a.m. the New Mexico State Police were alerted to a crash involving a 2018 Ford F-150 and a 2006 International tractor-trailer on U.S. Hwy 285 around milepost 77 north of Artesia.
The initial investigation indicates that the F-150 driven by 42-year-old Thomas Wade Frazier, a Corporal with the Artesia Police Department, was traveling north on U.S. Hwy 285. For reasons still under investigation the F-150 collided into the rear of the International tractor-trailer that was also northbound and slowing to turn into the Creek Side Dairy. Corporal Frazier sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased on scene by the Office of the Medical Investigator.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, a 20-year-old male from Dexter, NM was uninjured in the crash. This crash is under investigation by the New Mexico State Police Uniform Bureau with assistance from the New Mexico State Police Crash Reconstruction Unit and Drone Unit.
For inquiries pertaining to Corporal Fraziers’s service history please reach out to Artesia Police Department PIO Lindell Smith at (575) 746-5010 or Lsmith@artesianm.gov.