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Wrong-Way Driver, Victim In Deadly Interstate 80 Crash Identified

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The wrong-way driver who killed a 24-year old West Sacramento man Tuesday night has been identified by police as 47-year old Katherine Marie Malek.

The crash happened just before 10 p.m. on eastbound Interstate 80.

Fernando Bravo's family is now left grieving after the crash. Tears and hugs of comfort surrounded the Bravo family as the tragedy began settling in.

"I lost my brother, he's gone," cried his younger brother, Edgar Bravo.

Heartbroken, Edgar realizes his older brother Fernando isn't coming back.

"I just go through my phone and look at those --" sobbed Edgar, not able to finish his sentence.

Edgar saw his brother on Sunday, for their younger brother's 18th birthday.

"That was the last time I seen him," cried Edgar.

Edgar says his brother was driving to a friend's house Tuesday night when he was hit and killed by a wrong-way driver.

It's an issue that's been a focus of Caltrans after a series of deadly wrong-way crashes in the Sacramento area over a five-month period in the Sacramento area in 2016.

"These collisions account for less than one-tenth of one-percent for all total collisions and crashes," said Caltrans spokesman Dennis Keaton.

In response to those crashes, Caltrans rolled out new technology this year, to alert the California Highway Patrol, anytime there's a wrong-way driver.

"The sensors, cameras and reflectors are all meant to tell the driver they're doing something wrong," Keaton added.

So far the new technology has been installed at 18 different locations around Sacramento and Yolo counties.

Keaton says the Caltrans traffic control center didn't receive any alerts from Tuesday's wrong-way crash. Even if the driver-at-fault went through one of the locations with a detection system, he says there's no guarantee police would have caught up to her before the crash.

"There are no words honestly, what she did was really wrong," said Edgar.

A father to a 4-year old boy, a brother and a son, Fernando Bravo's family says his memory will live on in their hearts.

"We miss him, we love him."

A toxicology test is underway to figure out whether the driver at fault was under the influence at the time of the crash.

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