Five Dead, Two Hurt In Wrong-Way Crash On I-95
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - One of the people involved in a deadly wrong way wreck on I-95 described the horror and chaos of the incident.
"All you see boom... car coming toward me," said Joao Gustavo Carabajal, 58, of Coconut Creek who was also involved in the crash but was not injured. "All you see is police coming fast and people dead."
Carabajal was driving North on I-95, towing a car when he was hit in the chain reaction accident after the head on collision.
Five people were killed in North Miami-Dade crash.
A woman in a pick up truck, identified as 23-year old Alexandra Nalani Lefler, was driving south in the northbound lanes of I-95 when she side-swiped one car and then slammed head on into a sedan in the express lanes near the Miami Gardens Drive exit just after 12:30 a.m, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Lefler and all four people in the sedan were killed. The four people in the sedan have been identified as Miguel Gil, from Cooper City; Jose Labrador Gil, 52, and Gisela Gil Egui, 40, from Bridgeport, Connecticut and Gisela Margarita Egui, 71, from Venezuela.
A friend of Lefler said she had recently moved to South Florida from San Francisco to be with her father who recently passed away. He said she was on her way home from a restaurant where she worked when the accident occurred.
Two of the people in the sedan who were not wearing seat belts were ejected.
"That accident caused other accidents because vehicles came onto the express lanes collided with other vehicles," said FHP spokesman Joe Sanchez with the Florida Highway Patrol. "There were a total of five vehicles and two people transported to local hospitals."
The injured taken to the hospital were identified as Nameer Khattab, 58, and Katherine Warsch.
Ironically, the accident happened just as FHP launched a new campaign to improve safety on I-95.
"These are the accidents we are out here trying to prevent," said Sanchez. "Educating the public to be careful, not to no drink and drive, to pay attention."
All northbound lanes of I-95 were closed for the accident investigation which took several hours. Traffic was forced to exit the highway at Miami Gardens Drive.
This wasn't the only deadly accident Wednesday morning.
The State Road 826/Palmetto Expressway westbound exit ramp to NW 12th Avenue was shut down for a fatal rollover crash. Investigators have not said what led to this accident.