2 Dead After Driver Going Wrong Way On I-30 Crashes Into Vehicle Head On
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Two people are dead after a vehicle going the wrong way on Interstate-30 crashed into another head on near West Loop 820.
The crash happened around 3:30 a.m. Friday as a woman drove west in the eastbound lanes of I-30. After receiving several emergency calls, police were able to locate the wrong-way driver on the highway.
Officers attempted to stop the vehicle by deploying spike strips, but were unsuccessful. Police were following the driver on the opposite side of the highway -- traveling in the right direction -- with lights and sirens and doing everything they could to stop the woman.
Police had been tailing the wrong-way driver for several minutes when she crashed, head-on, into the vehicle being driven by Kevin Dockter of Hudson Oaks. Both the wrong-way driver and Dockter were killed. There were no other occupants in either vehicle.
A Tarrant County medical examiner identified the wrong-way driver as 28-year-old Vanessa Matlock.
Fort Worth police stressed, they tried to use tactics that would safely bring Matlock to a stop but could not in time.
"We have certain rules we have to follow, and at no point during this pursuit did any of our officers go the wrong way to follow the vehicle. We deployed spike strips safely. Got it to slow down a little bit while other officers were paralleling to be able to update so we could know where [Matlock] at, at all times," said Officer Buddy Calzada with the Fort Worth Police Department.
Police closed all eastbound lanes of I-30 at Alemeda Street while they investigated the crash. The lanes have since been reopened.