SANTA FE, NM - An alleged drunk driver was arrested in connection with a hit-and-run crash that occurred Saturday morning in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
The incident occurred on New Mexico 475 in the vicinity of Hyde Memorial State Park shortly before 9 a.m. A man who was driving into the mountains described what happened to Santa Fe County Sheriff's deputies. He said the driver of a Nissan Armada was going around a corner at a high rate of speed and veered into his lane. The vehicles collided, and a woman in the passenger seat was injured with a face laceration.
The driver of the Nissan, identified by authorities as 23-year-old Arneston Rene Morales Chavez of Santa Fe, allegedly kept driving after the collision but then stopped down the road and was reported to have fled on foot with at least one other passenger.
An investigation by sheriff's deputies led them to Morales Chavez, who was arrested at his home in Santa Fe.
He now faces numerous criminal charges, including aggravated driving while intoxicated, knowingly leaving the scene of an accident, and failure to give information and render aid.
