2 Drivers Killed In Freeway Crash In Sacramento; Officers Investigating Possibility Of Wrong-Way Driver
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Two people were killed in a vehicle crash on Highway 50 just before midnight on Sunday.
The head-on crash happened on eastbound Highway 50 just east of Interstate 5. According to CHP Officer Michael Bradley, a KIA Sorrento driven by 61-year-old Marvin Dale Walker of West Sacramento slammed into a Chevrolet Silverado. Walker died at the scene.
The driver of the Silverado, 50-year-old Ba Dai Le, was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead around 6 a.m.
A third car crashed at the scene, but it's not known if that car was involved in the collision. The driver of that car was not injured.
At this point in the investigation, officers are not ruling out the possibility it may have been a wrong-way crash.
"We're going to go back and talk to the person who called it in. Did they see the car actually physically driving the wrong way, or was there a previous collision that made the vehicle spin out, turn the wrong direction and then another crash happen?" said Bradley.
Officers are also still investigating whether drugs and alcohol were factors in the crash. They urge anyone who may have information about this accident to contact them.
In 2015, there have been four deadly wrong-way crashes in the Sacramento region.
- In January, three people, including two teens were killed when police say a drunk driver hit them head-on on Interstate 80.
- In April, a wrong-way driver traveled more than five miles in the wrong direction on Highway 50 before crashing into a truck, killing all four people involved. The 19-year-old driver, Elizabet Torres-Zela had a blood-alcohol level of .20.
- And earlier this month, a mother and her two daughters were among the four dead in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 505 in Arbuckle.
- On May 12, three people were killed in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 80 near Madison Avenue when the driver of a pick-up truck slammed head-on into a car carrying two men.
"Each of the individual accidents gets investigated, as to whether there's some causation we can go out and address, but we also have to look at the trend as to why there are so many of them," said Malcolm Dougherty with Caltrans, following the May 12 crash.
Dougherty says his agency will work with troopers to see if they can do more to protect drivers.
"I think we need to try to be innovative in how we decide because these are unacceptable tragedies," he said.
