Another Wrong-Way, Suspected-DUI Crash Reported On Hwy 101

NORTH BAY, CA – A Cotati man driving the wrong way on U.S. Highway 101 in San Rafael was arrested on suspicion of DUI after a two-car collision early Sunday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

It was the second early morning collision involving a wrong-way driver on the highway in Marin County since Friday when a Santa Rosa woman was killed, CHP Officer Andrew Barclay said.

The CHP received calls around 2 a.m. Sunday about a vehicle driving north in a southbound lane of the highway near the Lincoln Avenue off-ramp in San Rafael, Barclay said.

Officers responded a minute later to a collision involving a 2000 Mercedes-Benz sedan and a 2013 Honda Fit near the Merrydale Road overcrossing, Barclay said.

Passersby were treating the Mercedes driver, Javier Sosa, 32, of Cotati, on the right shoulder of the freeway, and other CHP officers found the Honda in flames on the right shoulder, Barclay said.

The three occupants of the Honda escaped the vehicle with minor injuries and declined to be taken to a hospital, Barclay said. San Rafael fire crews extinguished the car fire.

Sosa had allegedly driven north onto the southbound freeway somewhere in San Rafael. The Honda driver, a 68-year-old San Pablo man, prevented a head-on collision with the Mercedes but the left sides of each
vehicle collided and the left rear wheel of each vehicle broke away, Barclay said.

CHP officers saw signs of intoxication while speaking to Sosa and he was arrested and taken to Marin General Hospital for medical clearance, Barclay said.

Sosa was booked into Marin County Jail. The CHP will seek felony charges of DUI causing injury and DUI with a blood-alcohol level of at least 0.15 percent, driving the wrong way on a freeway causing injury, driving
while unlicensed and driving without insurance, according to Barclay.

On Friday, Sachiko Umehara, 63, of Santa Rosa, died after her 2000 Honda was struck in a northbound lane of U.S. Highway 101 near Novato by a Santa Rosa woman's 2006 Mercedes that was traveling south in the northbound lane around 1:10 a.m.

Also see:

• 11 Arrested At DUI Checkpoint
• Man Dies In Diving Accident Off Salt Point State Park
• Husband, Wife Found Dead In Dixon Home
• Coroner IDs Man Killed When Vehicle Went Into Waters Off Mare Island

--Bay City News/File photo