Three Phoenix area teens were hospitalized Sunday after the driver of a Mazda passenger car failed to yield to a Sierra Vista police officer during a traffic stop, leading to a horrific crash and rollover just a few miles from the Mexican border.
A young woman believed to have been in the passenger seat was ejected from the Mazda during the crash and required life-saving medical attention at the scene. The two male occupants had to be extricated from the vehicle.
All three were airlifted to hospitals with serious injuries, according to Carol Capas of the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. The condition of the three teens was not updated as of press time.
Among the questions investigators hope to answer is why the driver refused to pull over for the traffic stop and what the group was doing in an area. Southern Cochise County is a hotspot for out-of-town drivers recruited by Mexican cartels to participate in smuggling activities.
Capas said the incident began around 3:38 p.m. when an officer with the Sierra Vista Police Department attempted a traffic stop south of the city. The Mazda drove through a residential area “at a high rate of speed in an obvious attempt to elude law enforcement,” Capas added.
Eventually the driver turned from State Route 92 and drove westbound on Ramsey Canyon Road which winds through the southeast foothills of the Huachuca Mountains. CCSO deputies and SVPD officers positioned themselves back at the SR92 / Ramsey Canyon Road intersection because they knew something the Mazda’s driver did not – that there is no other way out of the foothills.
“The suspect vehicle turned around on Ramsey Canyon and headed back down towards Highway 92, crossing Highway 92 onto [eastbound] Ramsey Road before striking an innocent driver and the suspect vehicle rolling,” Capas said. “The vehicle struck by the suspect received serious damage, but the driver was reportedly not injured.”
Additional information will be released as it becomes available, Capas said.
