Police ID Wrong-Way Driver Killed in I-495 Crash

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Virginia State Police have identified the driver who was killed driving the wrong way on I-495 in the Alexandria area early Monday as Francisco Taveres, 37, of the Bronx, N.Y.

Taveres was the only occupant of the car, police said.

At 1:35 a.m., Monday, Virginia State Police received an emergency call about a wrong-way driver on I-495/I-95. As state police troopers immediately began to respond to the location, another call came in minutes later that the wrong-way vehicle had collided with another vehicle in the westbound lanes of I-495, east of Exit 174 for Eisenhower Avenue in Fairfax County.

A 2012 Honda CR-V had been traveling east in the westbound lanes when it struck head-on a westbound 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe. A Dodge Caravan also traveling west on I-495 was then damaged by debris from the first crash.

The 74-year-old male driver and his 62-year-old female passenger of the Chevy Tahoe, both of Hillside, N.J., were transported to Fairfax Inova Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, according to police.

The driver of the 2005 Dodge Caravan, a 32-year-old male from Oxon Hill, Md., was also transported to Fairfax Inova Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.