Wrong-way driver involved in fatal I-5 accident

A 42-year-old cab driver was killed after a wrong-way accident in California on the Interstate 5 freeway in the early morning hours of April 19. The fatal crash occurred around 2:30 a.m. near the Washington Street exit in San Diego in the highway"s southbound lanes. Reports say that after being struck by the wrong-way driver, the cab driver exited his vehicle and was run over several times by oncoming traffic. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

While the cab was stopped on the freeway, a white Honda Accord crashed into it and pushed it over an embankment. It careened through a chain-link fence and ended up nose-down in a nearby parking lot. The driver of the Accord was transported to a nearby hospital and treated for minor injuries.

The wrong-way vehicle that initially caused the crash made a U-turn and took the Washington Street exit and fled the scene. Authorities later located the vehicle, which had been abandoned in downtown San Diego. Around 10:15 a.m., California Highway Patrol officials arrested a blonde woman in her 40s who is alleged to have been driving the wrong-way vehicle. It was a rental car, and authorities are investigating whether the woman may have been driving under the influence at the time of the accident. CHP officials were forced to close all of the freeway"s southbound lanes for a time, and traffic was restricted to one lane for several hours while road crews cleaned up the scene.

If the deceased victim"s family wishes to collect compensation for damages related to the death of the cab driver, they might work with a personal injury attorney. After reviewing the evidence gathered by police investigators, that attorney may be able to determine if the family is able to hold one of the drivers involved in the accident liable in court.

Source: NBC San Diego, "Cab Driver Hit Several Times After Head-On Collision," Diana Guevara, Monica Garske and Vanessa Herrera, April 20, 2014