Drivers Killed In Wrong Way Crash On I-5 In Carlsbad Identified

CARLSBAD, CA — Authorities Wednesday identified a Camp Pendleton Marine and a pickup driver who were killed when the pickup crashed head-on into a sedan while heading the wrong way on Interstate 5 in Carlsbad following a brief police pursuit in Oceanside.

Christian Zurita, 42 of San Diego, was driving a Ford F-150 southbound in the northbound lanes of I-5 just south of Las Flores Drive around 12:20 a.m. Tuesday when he slammed into a 2008 Pontiac sedan driven by 19-year-old Matthew Ryan Adams of Utah, according to information from the California Highway Patrol and the county Medical Examiner's Office.

Adams – an active duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton – and Zurita were both pronounced dead at the scene, the Medical Examiner's Office reported.

A 35-year-old San Diego man who was a passenger in the pickup was taken to a hospital for treatment of multiple broken bones and complaints of chest and neck pain, the CHP reported.

Around 12:12 a.m. Tuesday, Oceanside police pulled over Zurita for a minor traffic violation at Carmelo and Monterey drives, but he drove off in his pickup when an officer approached, according to Oceanside police.

Officers followed him onto southbound I-5 for a few minutes, but the pursuit was called off when Zurita started going the wrong way on northbound I- 5, police said.

– City News Service