New Mexico: Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office deputy struck by driver with 3 prior DWIs

A Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy is recovering after he was hit by a repeat drunk driver early Friday morning. “We see time and time again these drunk drivers that have absolutely no regard for the safety of anybody else,” Aaron Williamson of BCSO said.

A motorcycle driver, driving at a high speed rate, lost control and was thrown from his motorcycle. The driver, Hackan Seckin, 50, was pronounced dead on scene. The accident closed the I-40 frontage road near the Route 66 Casino around 8 p.m., but it wasn’t Seckin who was suspected of drunk driving.

“Just after one o’clock this morning one of our deputies did have his marked patrol unit blocking one of the lanes of travel on the frontage road,” Williamson said.

Just before he and the other deputies were about to leave, however, another accident happened, this one involving that deputy.

“A vehicle that was traveling westbound, a silver Toyota pick-up, struck his marked unit with all of its emergency equipment engaged,” Williamson explained.

The deputy was in his patrol car at the time and the pick-up crashing right into his front passenger side damaging the car and injuring the deputy.

“He’s okay, non-life threatening injuries,” Williamson said. “[He] was checked out at the hospital and has been released.”

Deputies say behind the wheel of that pick-up was 48-year-old Robert Martinez of Albuquerque.

Martinez already has three drunk driving convictions under his belt, making this charge a felony.

“This was his fourth DWI,” Williamson said. “There was absolutely no reason that this crash last night should have occurred.”

Martinez was charged in with DWI in 1991, but it was dismissed.

He was later convicted of DWI in 1992, 1998 and 2007. The 1998 charge is Aggravated DWI.

With so many convictions, it’s an unsettling thought for deputies that more people like Martinez could be out on the roads.

“They only care about themselves and we see innocent people getting hurt and injured and killed on a regular basis,” he said.

Martinez has been charged with Felony Aggravated DWI for the Friday crash because his BAC was more than twice the legal limit, Williamson said. He’s also been charged with reckless driving and failure to yield to emergency vehicles.

He has been booked into MDC. As of 3 p.m. on Friday, he can bond out with $2,500.