See video of the incident at www.santafenewmexican.com/video/

A 21-year-old allegedly drunken driver was run over by his own car Sunday afternoon after leading police on a chase and neglecting to put his truck in park after finally coming to a halt, police said Tuesday.

Roy Aguilar — who narrowly missed crashing into two other oncoming motorists during the nearly 10-minute chase near Cochiti Lake — sustained only minor injuries after he fell out of his Ford pickup and it rolled over his legs.

"You could see how easily this guy could have killed somebody," said Department of Public Safety Secretary John Denko, who viewed a videotape of the pursuit Tuesday with reporters.

Aguilar first came to the attention of police when he was allegedly involved in a hit-and-run accident in the parking lot of Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe, said Peter Olson, DPS spokesman. Not long after, drivers on Interstate 25 began calling the state police's Drunk Busters hot line and reporting Aguilar's erratic driving, he said.

State Police Officer Grace Romero found Aguilar parked by the side of N.M. 16 at the Cochiti exit from I-25, according to a videotape. Romero tried to contact Aguilar, but he started driving down N.M. 16, a two-lane road with dirt shoulders, toward Cochiti Lake, when he saw her.

Aguilar swerved all over the road — including driving completely in the oncoming lane at times — as Romero pursued him, the video shows. Romero, who also attended Monday's news conference, said she was trying to alert oncoming traffic to Aguilar's erratic behavior by using the lights on her patrol car.

After pursuing Aguilar for a couple of minutes, he abruptly sped up to more than 70 mph, when his truck veered off the road to the right dirt shoulder, then swerved across the road to the left. A sport-utility vehicle coming toward him at the time — which contained a couple on their way back from church in Peña Blanca — drove off the road to its left, and Aguilar swerved just in front of it, narrowly missing crashing into it.

Aguilar then drove way off the road to the left, before swerving back across the road to the right side — this time cutting behind another sport-utility vehicle and just barely missing it. Aguilar then drove across the ditch to the right of the road, through a barbed-wire fence, and continued across the dirt and scrub in a cloud of dust.

He drove on the dirt for another minute or so before coming to a stop. But instead of putting the truck in "park," Aguilar instead put the gearshift in "reverse," then opened the door, put one foot down and crumpled to the ground. As he lay on the dirt, the truck rolled over his left leg and both his ankles.

Romero quickly exited her car, checked briefly on Aguilar, then went after the truck, which she said had begun moving relatively quickly in reverse. When she entered the truck cab to stop it, she found the seat soaked with urine, she said. She also found a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka that was three-quarters gone, she said.

When she went back to Aguilar, he was conscious and "a little combative," Romero said. He had a chunk of cactus in his head and was trying without much luck to get up off the ground, she said.

Aguilar was able to tell the officer his first name was Roy, though he couldn't tell her his last name, Romero said. His speech was slurred and his eyes were glassy and red, she said.

Six hours later, Aguilar told the officer he thought he had gotten off the interstate at the Santo Domingo exit, Romero said. He likely sustained only minor injuries to his legs because the dirt in the area where he was run over was very soft, she said. Police later drew blood from Aguilar, and though they didn't release his blood alcohol content Monday, Denko said he was "significantly drunk."

Denko and State Police Chief Faron Segotta cited the Drunk Buster hot line — #394 (DWI) on a cell phone — as proof that New Mexicans are fighting the state's DWI epidemic. "We have a lot of people who have consumed this much alcohol on our streets," Denko said.

Alcohol-related fatalities have fallen 25 percent this year over last, both men said, which is proof that law-enforcement and community efforts to combat the problem are working.

Aguilar was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated, aggravated fleeing from police, careless driving and not wearing a seat belt. He was also cited for driving on a suspended or revoked license. In addition, he was arrested on a bench warrant from San Juan County Magistrate Court that charged failure to appear on an original count of consuming or possessing an open container of alcohol, according to online court records.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.