http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1158873092/14

Teacher dies in potato-truck accident
By PATRICK MALONE
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
A San Luis Valley schoolteacher was killed Tuesday when her car was smashed between two large trucks hauling loads of potatoes on a county road five miles west of Mosca.

Kelly Bergen, 26, of Monte Vista, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Colorado State Patrol Sgt. George Dingfelder.

The driver of one of the potato trucks, 27-year-old Oscar Martinez-Cruz, of Monte Vista, was booked at Alamosa County Jail on suspicion of careless driving causing death. Martinez, originally from Mexico, is being held there for federal immigration authorities. He was treated for minor injuries at San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center before being released into the custody of the state patrol.

The accident occurred on Alamosa County Road 5 at 7 p.m. Bergen was traveling west in a 2003 Ford Focus behind a semitrailer hauling a load of potatoes. Behind Bergen, Martinez was driving another semitrailer loaded with potatoes.

The truck driven by Martinez slammed into the back of Bergen's Focus. The impact forced the Focus into the rear of the potato truck in front of Bergen. Drivers of both trucks that were ahead of Bergen escaped injury.

Dingfelder said Trooper Travis DePriest, an accident reconstruction specialist for the state patrol, is investigating whether the trucks involved in the crash were overloaded. The patrol does not suspect that drugs, alcohol or excessive speed were factors in the crash.

Bergen was employed as a teacher at Sangre de Cristo schools.