Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Patrol: Wrong-way freeway driver faces DUI count

Jose Corona

Jose Corona

The Nevada Highway Patrol said troopers averted a possible serious crash when they stopped a wrong-way driver suspected of DUI on U.S. 95 in the east valley.

The Thanksgiving Day incident was captured on video, which was released today.

“Fortunately this event ended without injury, but in the video you can see numerous vehicles pass the wrong-way driver,” the patrol said in a statement. “There were plenty of opportunities for this to turn deadly.”

Patrol dispatchers started getting calls about 3 a.m. of a small SUV driving south in northbound lanes of the freeway near Tropicana Avenue.

The first trooper encountered the vehicle near Horizon Ridge Parkway and began to chase it, the patrol said. But the driver, Jose Corona, 45, ignored the sirens and lights, the patrol said.

Other troopers got ahead of the SUV and deployed spikes that stopped the vehicle, the patrol said.

The video shows troopers approaching Corona and ordering him to put up his hands. Music blares from inside the vehicle as they handcuff him.

Corona smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and failed field sobriety tests, the patrol said. He was booked at the Clark County Detention Center on counts of DUI, driving the wrong way, disobeying a peace officer and reckless driving, officials said.

He has since bailed out, jail logs show.

“Wrong-way drivers are something that troopers in the valley respond to almost on a daily basis, mostly in the overnight hours,” the patrol said. “Almost all of these drivers have one thing in common: they have some form of impairment.”