HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A wrong-way driver slammed head-on into another vehicle during a deadly crash on the East Freeway early Sunday, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales.
The sheriff said both vehicles caught fire after the collision, leaving two people dead. Deputies said the wrong-way driver and a passenger in the other vehicle were killed in the crash.
The driver of the other vehicle was taken to the hospital in serious condition, deputies said.
According to Houston Transtar, the freeway was closed in both directions for several hours. The freeway reopened at 8:30 a.m. This happened just before 2 a.m. in the eastbound, or outbound lanes.
The crash sent debris flying in the lanes heading east and west.
“When people get in vehicles and they don't think of other drivers on the roadway,” Capt. McConnell, with the HCSO’s Vehicular Crimes Division, said. “I don't know if intoxication played a part in this. But more than 50% of our fatales on our roads that we investigate have intoxication as a leading factor in cause. So I would assume that this is going to be intoxication-related. And I just beg the people out there that are listening to think of other people before they get behind the wheel.”
Check out our interactive traffic map to see this and other trouble spots across the Houston area: