Wrong-way crash kills 3 in Phoenix
Arizona authorities seek ways to prevent such wrecks
PHOENIX — An early morning wrong-way collision on a Phoenix freeway killed two university students and another young adult, the latest such wreck that has state officials trying to find ways to prevent the resulting deaths and injuries, typically caused by impairment.
The wrong-way driver was a 22-year-old man driving a car with Colorado license plates, and the women were ages 19 and 20, apparently sisters and in a car with North Carolina plates, said spokesman Raul Garcia of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Garcia said the identities of those killed in the wreck weren’t immediately available. But Grand Canyon University spokesman Bob Romantic said that two of those killed were students at the private Christian university and that they were in separate vehicles involved in the crash on Interstate 17 shortly after 2 a.m. Friday.
Romantic said the university, out of respect for the privacy of the families, would not be releasing information about the students.
Arizona troopers were working with Colorado and North Carolina authorities to notify relatives, Garcia said.
It’s not immediately known whether the wrongway driver was impaired, and that will be determined by toxicology tests conducted by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, Garcia said.
Nearly all wrong-way crashes in Arizona involve impairment from alcohol or drugs, Trooper Kameron Lee, another Arizona DPS spokesman.
The Department of Public Safety regards wrong-way driving primarily as a societal problem, Garcia said.
“We want the public to take responsibility” to not get behind the wheel if impaired and to keep others from driving if they’re impaired, he said. “If they can’t take those keys away, dial 911 so we can take those keys away.”
Also, drivers should stay alert, avoid distractions and plan how they would respond in a split second to a hazard such as an oncoming wrong-way vehicle, Garcia said.