A Christopher Newport University student lost her life and the four other people in the car in which was riding sustained severe-to-life-threatening injuries when a wrong-way driver slammed into their vehicle on I-64 near Hampton Roads Center Parkway in Hampton, Virginia (VA). The fatal head-on collision occurred around 2 am on December 4, 2011, and the at-fault driver also got seriously injured.
Police did not immediately release details on the cause of the crash, refusing to state even whether alcohol or drugs played a role in leading the wrong-way driver to get on I-64 West traveling east. Drunk or drugged driving must be considered and fully assessed by investigators, however, along with the at-fault driver being lost or confused.
This is, unfortunately, not the first fatal head-on car crash on local interstates. On December 29, 2009, a man driving a BMW entered the HOV lanes on I-264 in Virginia Beach, VA, from the wrong direction — crashing through lowered gates to do so — and killed two people in another vehicle. In a more-recent incident, deaths were narrowly averted when a drunk 21-year-old woman drove her car the wrong way through the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and caused three wrecks.
Wrong-way drivers take a terrible toll on all roads and highways. Whatever led the driver who caused the deadly Hampton head-on to drive into oncoming traffic, the person must be held responsible, both criminally and civilly in personal in jury and wrongful death lawsuits, for the pain and suffering that irresponsible act caused.
EJL