By Associated Press - Friday, January 29, 2021

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Westbound lanes of a Tempe freeway reopened Friday after being closed about six hours after a four-vehicle wreck that authorities said involved a wrong-way vehicle.

The state Department of Public Safety said the crash late Thursday night on State Route 202 near Priest Drive started with a head-on collision between an eastbound wrong-way car and another car in the westbound HOV lane. The two vehicles then struck two other vehicles, the DPS said.

DPS spokesman Bart Graves said the wrong-way driver was a 37-year-old woman from Illinois and that investigators preliminarily did not believe she was impaired.

The wrong-way driver was not further identified, but Graves said she will face charges of aggravated assault charges stemming from the wreck once she is released from a hospital where she was taken to treatment of unspecified injuries.

Graves said the driver of the car struck by the wrong-way vehicle was taken to a hospital for treatment of serious injuries and that the drivers of the two other vehicles had minor injuries.

DPS Sgt. Jacob Melki earlier told azfamily.com that the wrong-way driver got out of her vehicle after the wreck and was found unconscious under a tree.

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