Wrong-Way Crash Victim Opens Up To ABC-7

Lydia Murillo will never forget Sunday’s trip home from the grocery story on Interstate 10 West.

“I’ve just been really traumatized,” she told ABC-7 in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

Murillo and her husband were involved in a deadly wreck that killed two people and hospitalized three others. “It was the scariest, most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said.

Investigators said the crash happened around 4:30 p.m. on Interstate 10 West near the Mesa Street exit at Mile Marker 11.5

Police told ABC-7 that Jose Vasquez, 45, of Anthony, N.M., was behind the wheel of a black GMC Sierra pickup truck when he got involved in a crash at North Desert Boulevard and Mesa. They said he then tried to get away by driving onto the nearby Mesa I-10 off ramp, entering the freeway in the wrong direction.

Investigators said Vasquez’s truck collided with another vehicle and hit a traffic sign on the ramp as he continued to drive east in the westbound lanes.

Murillo said she saw the truck coming right at her and her husband, who was driving their daughter’s silver Santa Fe. “I said to my husband, ‘Look!’ and then as soon as I said (that), we heard the crash,” said Murillo. “I closed my eyes and said, “Oh my God, we’re going to die,’ and my husband managed to swerve to the side.”

The Murillos got out unharmed. Lydia, a mother of three, said she feels lucky to be alive. “I try to imagine my kids getting a phone call that their parents just died,” she said.

The truck damaged other cars on its way through the freeway- it clipped a Chevrolet Malibu, causing the Malibu to spin across three lanes of traffic, police told ABC-7.

The driver and passenger in that car, 73-year-old Lois Lockwood and 5-year-old Trinity Herring, were not injured, officers said.

Investigators said Vasquez then struck a black Dodge Charger head-on, causing both vehicles to spin. A red Honda Accord then collided with the still-spinning truck and came to rest in the left lane of I-10 West. The pickup also hit a red Volkswagen Cabriolet, according to officers.

Police said the driver of the Accord, 57-year-old Michael Kolstad, was taken to Las Palmas Medical Center. The driver and passenger in the Cabriolet, 29-year-old Michael Salayandia and 26-year-old Fabiola Salayandia, were treated at University Medical Center.

Vasquez and the driver of the Charger, 22-year-old Jose Licano-Rodriguez of Las Cruces, were both killed.

Police told ABC-7 they believe Vasquez had been drinking before the incident.