Mother of Carlsbad crash victims starts crusade to fix Southeast New Mexico's highways

Christie Sanders lost two sons to a tragic car accident last month, but she's taken her time to mourn and is now trying to make something good come from the heartbreak.

She's named her crusade after her sons, and wants to try to get others on her bandwagon to effect change on southeastern New Mexico roads, making them safer for local residents to travel on.

Kyle and Kevin Klug were traveling on U.S. 285 on their way back from a graveyard shift in the oilfields when the driver of the truck they were riding in reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and collided with a pipe utility trailer being pulled by a Ford pickup in the next lane.

And though the cause of the crash was attributed to driver fatigue, according to New Mexico State Police officers who responded to the scene, Sanders said she feels the bad roads played a part.

"We know that the oil and gas industry is growing and that so much over the last two years it's become a hazard just to drive down these roads," she said. "They're like country roads. They have no shoulders, lines on them, rivets in the side or in the center. They're very unsafe for all the traffic that's building and building up."

And it's no question that the traffic is getting busier along the highways coming into Carlsbad, largely due to the boom in oil and gas and potash industries.

Carlsbad Fire Chief Rick Lopez confirmed that the oil and gas industry has been involved in many recent accidents - both

industrial and car related - that his Emergency Medical Services team has responded to. The 911 calls have nearly tripled, he said.

"We used to get one every other week and now we're getting three or four a week," Lopez said. "There are more people out there, so the risk is higher."

And though Lopez believes the crashes have more to do with the drivers than the roads themselves, the chief did have something to say about the road conditions. "The more oilfield traffic we have out

Brothers Kevin, Kasey and Kyle Klug smile for a picture. Their mother, Christie Sanders, said this picture was taken three and a half years ago. (Submitted Photo)

there, the worse the roads are going to get because trucks are heavy.

"If we had four-lane highways, maybe things would have been different. I don't know," Lopez said about the crash that led to the Klug brothers' deaths. "(The road between) Carlsbad, Loving, Malaga and Pecos is a two center stripe. It's dangerous. There's no room for error."

According to Sergeant Lawrence Murray with the Roswell division of the state police, another fatal crash involving a bicyclist happened within three hours of the time that Kyle and Kevin lost their lives.

According to New Mexico Department of Transportation statistics, 16 people died on Eddy County roads last year in fatal crashes, according to preliminary numbers that were released Thursday.

That's double what the number was in 2011.

"These roads are being bombarded with enormous industry growth even in the last few years alone, but still just unsafe and unmaintained dangerous road. No action has been done to redefine these roads accordingly with that thought in mind," Sanders said.

After her husband Joe's death three years ago, Sanders moved to Las Vegas, Nev., to "live it up," she said, but a car accident she was involved in shortly after left her with injuries to her neck and lumbar region that kept her from traveling to see her sons and her six grandchildren that they were raising before they died.

She now has one child left - 23-year-old Kasey Klug, who works as an engineer

Christie Sanders

and travels an average of 350 miles each day to the various oilfield sites, Sanders said.

That's why the roads in this part of New Mexico are still important to her.

"This crusade is simple. Roads should be safer for all that live in the southeast New Mexico community," she said. "Like a big hug from my boys, safer roads are now our task at hand. This community should push the honorable Kyle and Kevin Klug Crusade to happen. There have been so many lives lost and affected by those roads, it's become an epidemic. It's too late for my boys and so many other lives that have been lost out there to be saved now, but enough is enough."

Sanders has been raising money for her cause, and said she has made many efforts to ask

A car accident on U.S. 285 resulted in two fatalities on Jan. 10. processed by IntelliTune on 10012013 131648 with script 11*New - blk-new SUB (Natalie Gross)

Eddy County residents to join her and city and county representatives and state legislators and alerting those, like DOT representatives, who can make the ultimate changes to the roads. For now, she said she's doing everything she can to raise awareness in New Mexico, even from a couple of states away.

Source: http://www.currentargus.com/ci_22640954/mother-carlsbad-crash-victims-starts-crusade-fix-southeast?source=rss_viewed

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