Cause of girl's fatal crash unknown

ESPAÑOLA, N.M. (KRQE) - New Mexico State Police have now been called in to help investigate the crash that killed a 17-year-old girl killed in a rollover crash north of Española Thursday.

Veronica Martinez died when her Toyota Camry came across the median on U.S. Highway 84-284 and hit an SUV going the other way.

The driver of the SUV, Michael Denton of Albuquerque, was treated for cuts and bruises.

Martinez, who lived in nearby Hernandez, was not wearing a seatbelt and died at the scene, investigators said.

Martinez attended Española Valley High School where friends described her as the hard-working single mother of a 4-year-old son.

"Veronica was nice: she had a lot of friends," said one of those friends, Kristan Archuleta. "She always talked to everyone, and she always wanted to help people out."

On Friday State Police were at the crash site trying to reconstruct what happened.

They are trying to figure out if Martinez was speeding and also planned to pull her cell phone records to see if she was texting or talking and became distracted.

Police say they also took a blood sample from Martinez to the state crime lab to see if drugs or alcohol were involved.

A final report on the crash is expected to take about two weeks, police said.