Seventh DWI charge follows rollover crash on Highway 6 in Valencia County
A shirtless driver fled a rollover on Highway 6, and officers tracked him into an arroyo. Patricio Duran now faces his seventh DWI charge.
A rollover on Highway 6 turned into a foot chase, a hospital run and a seventh DWI case, all on a corridor that carries daily traffic between Los Lunas and rural Valencia County. Witnesses told New Mexico State Police they saw a shirtless man climb out of the wrecked vehicle near mile marker 19 on May 31 and run off on foot, putting ordinary drivers on a narrow county road at risk while officers searched for him.
Investigators followed footprints from the crash site and found Patricio Duran, 58, about one-half mile away in an arroyo, where he appeared to be hiding. Duran was taken to a local hospital for injuries from the crash and later booked into the Valencia County Detention Center on June 3 after he was released from medical care.
The charges listed against Duran include driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, leaving the scene of an accident and driving while license revoked for DWI-related reasons. He also was cited for not wearing a seatbelt and careless driving. KRQE reported the DWI count as a third-degree felony, placing the case among the most serious impaired-driving offenses in New Mexico.
State penalty guidance says a seventh DWI offense is treated as a third-degree felony and can bring up to three years in prison, with two years mandatory, along with an ignition interlock requirement. New Mexico courts reported 10,041 felony and misdemeanor DWI dispositions statewide in 2024, and 68% ended in convictions, a reminder that the legal system is processing a steady stream of repeat and first-time cases across the state.
For Valencia County, the stakes are wider than one crash scene. The county’s estimated population reached 82,013 on July 1, 2025, and it sits inside the Albuquerque metropolitan area, where Highway 6 helps connect commuters, families and farm traffic to Los Lunas and surrounding communities. A rollover, a fleeing driver and a seventh DWI charge highlight the strain on patrol officers, hospitals and detention staff, but they also raise a harder question for residents: what, exactly, is supposed to stop a chronic offender before the next rollover becomes a fatal crash?
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