Houston crime: Man arrested and charged in fatal accident driving wrong direction on Gulf Freeway, police said

The accident occurred around 2:25 a.m. Monday on the outbound lanes of I-45 southbound near Scott in the Third Precinct.

The video above is from a previous story.

HPD investigators said a wrong-way driver in a silver Toyota Corolla was traveling northbound on the freeway’s south lanes and struck a black Nissan Altima. After the crash, the driver of the Corolla got out and stood on the main carriageway of the freeway. That’s when the driver of a black Buick, 28-year-old Jose Manuel Fernandez Ortiz, hit the Corolla and the driver.

Witnesses told police that Fernandez Ortiz was driving at high speed just before the accident.

The driver of the Corolla was also suspected of being intoxicated because, in the moments leading up to the collision with the Nissan Altima, he was driving erratically, accelerating, weaving in and out of traffic and bumping into people, police said.

Officials said the driver of the Corolla was pronounced dead at the scene. Fernandez Ortiz was then taken to the hospital where he showed signs of poisoning, police said. The passengers in the Nissan Altima should be fine.

Fernandez Ortiz has been charged with driving while intoxicated, which police say is his second offence.