Driver charged in wrong-way crash on I-10

A man who drove the wrong way on Interstate 10 and caused a three-vehicle collision that closed the highway near Riggs Road last week has been arrested and faces multiple felony charges.

Officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety arrested Erick Roberto Hermosillo-Bustillos, 33, of Chihuahua, Mexico, after he was released from the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix. According to a DPS statement, Hermosillo was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of I-10 in the early morning hours of May 19 when he sideswiped a pickup, hit a tractor-trailer head on and then crashed into a Chevrolet Impala near Firebird Lake (see “Wrong-way crash on I-10 snarls traffic during morning commute“). The tractor-trailer jack-knifed atop the center median and caught fire, which closed I-10 for several hours and clogged state Route 347 with detour traffic.

Both occupants of the semi escaped with just minor injuries, but four people were hospitalized, including Hermosillo and the driver of the Impala, who both suffered serious injuries from the collision.

DPS investigators believe Hermosillo was driving impaired at the time of the crash and he was booked in the Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix and faces charges of felony aggravated assault, three counts of felony criminal damage and five counts of felony endangerment.