Las Cruces Police identify woman killed when car rolled off driveway

Police Friday identified 62-year-old Jill Thompson as the woman killed when her car rolled out of the driveway and struck her.

It happened shortly before 10 am April 20, 2017. Police officers were dispatched to the report of an injured woman on the 5000 block of Wild Bill Lane on the city’s East Mesa.

Officers arrived to find Thompson pinned underneath a 1974 Plymouth.

Police say a relative of the woman became concerned when she heard the vehicle engine running near the driveway. She went to check on the vehicle and found her sister pinned underneath the vehicle.

Thompson was found dead at the scene, police said.

Police say she started the Plymouth in the carport and then walked down the driveway to open the chain link gates near the roadway.

Investigators believe Thompson may have accidentally started the vehicle while the automatic transmission was in reverse instead of park. Police believe the car began reversing and struck the woman as she opened the gates.

Police said “traffic investigators tested the theory by turning the ignition with the transmission in reverse and the vehicle, indeed, started.”