A 74-year-old man was struck and killed Saturday morning after his pickup broke down in a traffic lane on Spur 601 in Northeast El Paso, police said.
Martin Telesforo Lopez was driving a 1985 Ford F-150 westbound on the highway when the truck had mechanical problems near Railroad Drive, police said.
About 7 a.m., Lopez was outside his truck tying a tow strap when a car crashed into the back of the stalled pickup, police said.
Before the crash, Lopez’s truck was being followed by Alexis Adriana Trujillo, 23, who was driving a 2002 Toyota Tundra, police said.When Lopez’s pickup broke down, Trujillo pulled the Toyota in front of the Ford and Lopez got out to tie a tow strap between the trucks, police said.
At the same time, Marco Antonio Vega, 30, of the 3000 block of Jose Ortiz Lane, was driving a 2017 Honda Civic in the same lane as the stalled truck with a car in front of him, police said. The car in front of Vega switched lanes to avoid hitting Lopez’s truck but Vega could not move out of the lane in time and crashed into the rear of the Ford pickup.Lopez was struck and died of his injuries, police said.
The Spur 601 crash was one of two traffic-related deaths in El Paso over the weekend as of Sunday afternoon.
Both Lopez and Trujillo are from the 4000 block of Flory Avenue, which is about two miles away from the crash scene, according to a police news release.