Truck driver dies in fatal collision

An Albuquerque truck driver died early Friday morning when his vehicle collided with a truck driven by a Melrose man on U.S. 60/84 east of Melrose.

Pedro Renteria, 61, was driving a 2000 Freightliner tractor with trailer, traveling west at milepost 369, when the collision occurred.

A news release from Curry County Sheriff Wesley Waller said Renteria died at the scene. A passenger in his vehicle, Juan Luis Renteria Reyes, 32, also of Albuquerque, was airlifted to a Lubbock hospital with critical injuries.

The accident happened about 4:45 a.m., Waller said.

The other vehicle involved, a 1997 Peterbilt tractor with trailer, was traveling east on US 60/84. It was driven by Cutter Roberts, 31, of Melrose. Larry Tatum, 53, of Cuervo, was a passenger in that vehicle.

Neither Roberts nor Tatum were injured, the release said.

“The vehicles collided as they passed in opposite directions,” the release said.

Waller said the cause of the accident remained under investigation Friday afternoon.