Tire Failure kills New Mexico Woman

A Chicago woman died in a fatal accident Tuesday morning in a single vehicle rollover crash on I-25.

Barbara Arnold, 61, was pronounced dead at the scene. According to New Mexico State Police reports, Arnold was traveling southbound on I-25 at 11:06 a.m. when an eyewitness said she drifted onto the shoulder and her right rear tire failed on her late model Ford. She began a roadside slide, eventually rolling three times, landing in the median. She was pronounced dead at the scene due to multi-system trauma.

Alcohol and drugs were not involved in the accident.

This is the third fatal wreck in Colfax County in as many weeks. A 28-year-old Phoenix woman was killed June 1 when she lost control of her car on I-25 and it slid across the median into oncoming traffic, crashing with a truck near the south end of Raton.

New Mexico police are investigating whether alcohol was a factor in a June 14 accident near Maxwell that left a 42-year-old man dead. His flatbed truck left the highway went into the median and then he overcorrected, sending the truck back across the highway and, when he tried to steer it back toward the center of the road, it rolled over, ejecting him. Unopened beer cans were found at the scene.