Man charged in crash with bicyclist

By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Adams County district attorney has charged a man with a history of drunken driving and hit-and-run, in connection with an traffic accident that seriously injured a teenage bicyclist.

Alonso Ponce-Jimenez, 67, faces charges of child abuse and causing serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of an accident and driving with a revoked license.

D'Artagnan Dye, 13, suffered multiple skull fractures and brain injuries. He continues to recuperate.

Commerce City police learned that Ponce-Jimenez has been sought since 2005 for allegedly failing to comply with the probation requirements in a previous driving while ability impaired case.

Ponce-Jimenez was being held in the Adams County Jail on $30,000 bail, and another $1,000 in bail for the alleged probation violation.

Ponce-Jimenez told Commerce City police that he was behind the wheel of the pickup truck June 17 when he hit Dye, according to a court document. Ponce-Jimenez told police that he slowed after hitting the boy, saw the victim stand up and sit on the sidewalk and thought that the teen was OK, so he left.

According to court papers, Ponce-Jimenez was arrested in another hit-and-run collision in 2003, DUI and careless driving.

• July 10, 2008

  9:50 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  Wow what a caring human being,he got up so I thought he was okay.
  Wonder if he left because he might have been toasted again.
  I not talking about what you do with a muffin either.
  Also he needs to understand you can not drink and drive.
  Hit someone then drive away ,nlike it is okay.
  He could have killed that kid.
  What a freaking moron to do this and use that lousy excuse to try to get off the hook.
  He needs a little quality time in the big house to get him to straighten him out.
  If not to keep his drunken a$$ off the road for the safety of the rest of us.