Woman reported missing drives wrong way on I-80, kills Vallejo man in head-on crash

A 46-year-old Vallejo man died early Friday morning following a head-on crash on Interstate Highway 80 near Pinole Valley Road caused by a wrong-way driver, the California Highway Patrol said.

The crash occurred at about 12:35 a.m. when a 2015 Toyota Camry driven by a 78-year-old Concord woman was heading west in the eastbound lanes of Highway 80 and slammed into a 2007 Ford Focus heading east on the highway, the CHP said.

The Camry had a short time earlier, at 12:31 a.m. Friday, been reported traveling west in the wrong lanes near the Carquinez Bridge near Crockett, the CHP said.

Both drivers suffered major injuries in the crash. A 39-year-old female passenger in the Focus, a Vallejo resident, suffered minor injuries, CHP officials said.

The driver of the Focus, who was trapped in the wreckage, had to be pulled out of his car by firefighters on the scene. Both drivers were taken to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, the CHP said, where the 46-year-old Vallejo man was pronounced dead. The Concord woman remained hospitalized Monday morning with moderate, but not life-threatening injuries, according to the CHP.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash.

The Contra Costa County Coroner’s Office was still working late Friday morning on establishing the identity of the man killed, a spokesman said.

The 78-year-old woman, whose name was not immediately available, had earlier been reported to Concord police as missing, the CHP said.

The fatal crash remains under investigation. The CHP asks that anyone who saw the collision, the wrong-way Toyota before the crash or any events leading up to the collision, contact its Martinez office at (925) 646-4980.

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