After a head-on collision left a Monahans man dead and a state trooper critically injured Tuesday east of Alpine, social media posts quickly sprung up, seemingly to fill in the gaps in details surrounding the incident. Unfortunately, many of those details were wrong, or at least unsubstantiated, including accusations that the deceased driver had beer cans scattered around his wrecked car.
At least one online media source reported that Hernandez could be an undocumented immigrant in the United States illegally and that he may have been driving while intoxicated. This reporting was removed shortly after it was disputed.
In an interview with Big Bend Sentinel, a woman who came upon the crash shortly after it happened and before law enforcement arrived said she did not understand how anyone could determine whether the driver was impaired.
“There was no beer,” said the woman. “There was no alcohol scattered around. Nobody gave him mouth-to-mouth … I don’t think that at any point in time anybody could have said this person was drinking.”
Department of Public Safety officials released limited information shortly after the crash and have since updated it to include the names of the people involved, their conditions, ages, and where they are from, along with a brief description of the accident.
According to DPS, Trooper Zachary Vasquez, 26, of Alpine, Texas, is in stable condition after being taken by helicopter to University Medical Center in El Paso following the head-on collision that killed 28-year-old Erik Alberto Hernandez of Monahans.
Other information released by DPS included that Hernandez was traveling alone and wearing his seatbelt, and Vasquez was traveling with a DPS K-9, Guido, and was also wearing his seatbelt.
Preliminary information from that report indicated Hernandez was traveling westbound on U.S. 67 and, for “reasons unknown at this time,” drove into the eastbound lane and collided head-on with Trooper Vasquez’s vehicle. “Vasquez sustained serious injuries and was transported by helicopter to University Medical Center in El Paso for medical treatment,” the report stated. “A DPS K-9 was also inside the patrol vehicle at the time of the crash and was not injured.” Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene.
While this was the information released by the DPS media sites, area community Facebook pages were filled with statements attributed to anonymous sources or stated without attribution. Some of the information was quickly disputed and pulled from posts; some is still in circulation.
Television media sources reported that at least one Alpine police officer witnessed the accident. However, Alpine Police Captain Felipe Fierro clarified that no Alpine police officer witnessed the crash. Police arrived at the scene shortly after the accident, Fierro said.
Hernandez was an employee of Haliburton and had a wife and children, said Delilah Pacheco, the salesperson who sold Hernandez the truck he was driving at the time of the accident. Hernandez had been referred to her by her sister, who worked with him at Haliburton, Pacheco said.
While she said she only knew Hernandez from the time she spent with him when he was purchasing his truck, he was very excited to show the truck to his wife and children, who live in Mexico.
The cause of the crash is still being investigated, said DPS Lieutenant Elizabeth Carter. As of Thursday, Vasquez was still in critical condition in an intensive care unit. A fund raising site has been established for Vasquez at https://helpahero.com/campaign/trooper-vasquez-and-k9-guido.
