DUI charges filed after three-vehicle crash on East Main
Cortez police say a caller reported a possibly impaired driver seven minutes before Monday morning's collision at Sligo Street.
A 40-year-old man faces drunken-driving and child-abuse charges after a three-vehicle crash Monday morning at East Main Street and Sligo Street in Cortez, the Cortez Police Department said.
In its account posted on Crimewatch, the department said the Montezuma Cortez Dispatch Center took a call from a concerned party reporting a potentially intoxicated driver. Seven minutes later, dispatch received a second call reporting a crash involving that driver’s vehicle, another vehicle and a motorcycle.
Officers and emergency services responded to the intersection, which is on U.S. Highway 160 as it runs through town. In a separate alert the same morning, the department asked the public to avoid the area while crews worked, and said the highway had reopened later in the morning.
Police identified the driver as Trenton Tillahash, 40, and said he was arrested after being medically cleared. The department gave the arrest date as Monday, September 21.
The charges police listed are driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both; careless driving causing bodily injury; child abuse, a class 2 misdemeanor; drinking from or possessing an open alcoholic beverage container in a vehicle; and failing to provide proper use of a rear-facing restraint for a 1-year-old weighing less than 20 pounds. The department said a reckless driving charge has been requested as an additional charge.
Police listed an arraignment in Montezuma County Combined Courts on Tuesday, September 22, in case 26M486.
The department’s posting notes that a suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The Cortez Current does not know whether Tillahash has entered a plea or has an attorney.
The details above come from the Cortez Police Department’s arrest posting on Crimewatch.