Wrong-way, head-on crash on 5 Freeway in Santa Ana injures 4 people; DUI suspected
SANTA ANA — A wrong-way driver suspected of DUI plowed head-on into another car on the 5 Freeway early Saturday, injuring four people, the California Highway Patrol said.
The car that caused the crash was traveling southbound in the northbound carpool lane near First Street around 1:32 a.m., CHP Sgt. Hope Maxson said.
Four people in the car that was hit were transported to the hospital with major injuries, she said, and the driver of the wrong-way vehicle was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“Traffic was a nightmare,” Maxson said. “We had a hard time getting to the crash itself.”
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Drivers were parked along the shoulder, and traffic had to be stopped to allow ambulances and fire trucks to reach the crash by driving the wrong way on the freeway, she said.
Additional details about the driver or the injured people were not released.
Earlier this week, a woman was killed when a wrong-way driver crashed into her BMW sedan on the 73 Freeway in Newport Beach.
A driver in a Mercedes was traveling the wrong way in the northbound lanes Wednesday morning at a high rate of speed shortly before 9 a.m., CHP Officer John DeMatteo said. The Mercedes collided with a BMW driven by a woman who died at the scene and was later identified by coroner officials as Arda Gulesserian, 64, of Newport Beach.
Earlier this year, a speeding driver made a U-turn on the 91 Freeway in Anaheim and eventually hit a concrete center divider; the car exploded in flames. The driver was killed.