A five-vehicle wreck that sent three people to the hospital Wednesday evening was the result of a vehicle driving the wrong way — against traffic — on Egan Drive, police say.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, Juneau Police Department said in a Thursday afternoon news release. Neither charges nor the identities of the drivers involved in the wreck were announced.
According to police, around 4:20 p.m. a maroon Acura driven by a 49-year-old man drove in the opposite direction of traffic resulting in a five-car wreck on Egan Drive near the old Walmart building, including a head-on collision between the Acura and a white Subaru.
Witnesses told police the Acura was first seen driving in the inbound turn lane of Egan Drive before making a left turn toward Fred Meyer, however, the vehicle instead entered into the outbound lane of Egan Drive, according to JPD. This led to the head-on collision and multivehicle wreck.
According to JPD, the driver of the Acura suffered serious injuries from the wreck and was transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital; for medical attention. The driver and passenger of the white Subaru also suffered injuries and were transported to BRH, according to police, however, the injuries aren’t considered to be serious. An occupant of one of the other three vehicles involved also suffered minor injuries.
Due to the crash, Egan was closed down for about three hours which resulted in a near-standstill of traffic with cars in the outbound lane stretching to Hospital Drive. According to Police, Egan Drive opened back up for outbound traffic a little after 9 p.m.
Christian Carrion and Birgit Nelson, a married couple visiting Juneau, said they were driving outbound on Egan Drive when Nelson said she saw what appeared to be a small sedan driving very fast in the opposite direction heading toward their vehicle.
“Our life literally flashed before our eyes,” Nelson said in a social media post.
Carrion, who was in the passenger seat told the Empire Wednesday evening that his wife swerved from the left lane to the right narrowly dodging the vehicle.
“All I saw were the head lights and then we were swerving,” Carrion said.
Carrion said the pair proceeded to pull over to call 911 and reported what they saw to JPD. Carrion said they did not see the wreck.
• Contact reporter Clarise Larson at clarise.larson@juneauempire.com or (651)-528-1807. Follow her on Twitter at @clariselarson.
