{"id":29259,"date":"2024-02-12T17:17:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T00:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-in-speedway-crash-cited-with-reckless-driving\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:52:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:52:33","slug":"woman-in-speedway-crash-cited-with-reckless-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-in-speedway-crash-cited-with-reckless-driving\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman in Speedway crash cited with reckless driving"},"content":{"rendered":"Neighbor recalls crash scene; witness recorded crash on dash camera\n

\"San
San Juan County deputies were called to the scene of a crash Sunday at the Speedway gas station at New Mexico Highway 170 and County Road 1424 after a pickup truck took out two gas pumps, knocked down the awning and struck a nearby fence. (Tik Tok screenshot)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Farmington woman faces a reckless driving citation and could lose her license after causing more than $300,000 in damage to the Speedway on New Mexico Highway 170, according to the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Talovich, 32, reportedly drove her father\u2019s GMC pickup at 5:55 p.m. Feb. 4 at a high rate of speed and veered off the highway into the Speedway parking lot and hit two gas pumps, the awning and a nearby fence.<\/p>\n

A San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s deputy wrote in a police report that he plans to petition the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles to take away Talovich\u2019s license \u201cdue to the severity of the collision and her carelessness,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

Talovich, of Farmington, knew that she suffered from seizures and told the deputy that she had been off her medication for six months, but tried a new medicine \u201cKeppra\u201d the night of Feb. 3. \u201cShe said she had stopped taking this because it made her feel different and she didn\u2019t like it,\u201d the crash report said.<\/p>\n

She also told sheriff\u2019s deputies \u201cshe was going to Walgreens on East Main in Farmington and had stopped at the gas station across the road \u2026 that was the last thing she remembered\u201d before the crash on New Mexico 170, near the intersection of County Road 1424, according to the crash report.<\/p>\n

When the deputy arrived on scene, he asked Talovich what happened, and \u201cshe said she didn\u2019t know,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

Luke Klitzke has lived in the house next to the Speedway for 20 years. In that time he has experienced three memorable crashes, but none like this one, he told the Tri-City Record<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a small explosion when the truck took the pumps out,\u201d Klitzke said. \u201cA giant fireball and a cloud of smoke and debris came flying toward the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klitzke said his wife, Jessica, was in the kitchen and he heard her \u201cscream that the gas station went up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Klitzkes went outside to find the air filled with fog, and their fence destroyed.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe went out into the road. It was covered in debris,\u201d Klitzke said. \u201cThere were little pieces of the gas pump on the sidewalk in front of my house. The diesel pump was laying in my yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klitzke spoke with Tyler Turner, of Seattle, whose dash camera recorded the crash as he pulled into the lot and Talovich drove toward him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat guy was on his way to Seattle,\u201d Klitzke said. \u201cIf he had been a second faster, it would have been him getting hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner said that as he pulled into the lot, he \u201cslowed down to avoid hitting a large pole. Soon after he saw a gray truck pulling into the parking lot at a high rate of speed. The truck then ran through the gas pumps on the north side of the parking lot,\u201d according to the police report.<\/p>\n

Turner said he helped Talovich out of the truck, and she \u201cwas struggling to walk. \u2026 She seemed to be in shock,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Emergency medical services came and escorted Talovich to the hospital, yet her injuries from the crash were mild, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Klitzke marveled at the fact that he had been at the pump 30 minutes earlier filling up his work truck. \u201cIf any one of 30 things went differently, it would have been a different story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Klitzke said that about 15 years ago, he helped put out a fire at one of the gas pumps. \u201cThere was a girl that was playing with a lighter in her pocket when she was filling up with fuel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Then, 10 years ago, a Chevrolet truck took out his back gate and went through his fence, hitting a tree. \u201cIt\u2019s been fairly busy over there,\u201d Klitzke said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neighbor recalls crash scene; witness recorded crash on dash camera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80686,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29259\/revisions\/80686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29259"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}