A wrong way driver crashed head-on into a car on the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway Sunday, killing both drivers and badly hurting one passenger.
A 30-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was apparently driving west in the eastbound lanes, approaching De Soto Avenue. The wreck was a little before 12:25 a.m., said CHP Officer Elizabeth Kravig of the California Highway Patrol.
Callers phoned in reports of a wrong way motorist moments before the crash, the CHP said. A 2014 Toyota was in the carpool lane, heading the wrong way, when it slammed into a 2003 Lexus driven by Christian Glenn, 38, of Simi Valley.
Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene, said Investigator Trini Godoy of the coroner’s office.
A passenger in the Lexus was identified as Brooklyn Acker, 25, also of Simi Valley. Paramedics rushed her to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills with major injuries, the CHP reported.
A Siglalert issued at 12:41 a.m. as the carpool and the left three lanes of the eastbound freeway were closed for wreckage removal and investigation. Lanes were reopened at 5:12 a.m., Kravig said.
The CHP’s West Valley office asked anyone who saw the crash to call them at (818) 888-0980.
The crash was similar to another wrong-way head-on crash in Baldwin Park, in the San Gabriel Valley on the 605 Freeway, that happened in the midnight hour.
–City News Service