Driver hit on Tempe freeway takes keys from woman going wrong way

PHOENIX – A driver whose car was hit Friday by a woman going the wrong way on a Phoenix-area freeway got out of his car after impact and was able to pull the keys out of the other car’s ignition.

The woman, who had a 3-year-old in the car with her, was stopped around 1 a.m. on Interstate 10 near Elliot Road in Tempe. She had driven onto the eastbound off-ramp and when she tried to backtrack, bumped into another car.

The driver of that car got out and “I think noticed something was amiss,” Arizona Department of Public Safety Trooper Kameron Lee told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

The unidentified man reached into the woman’s car and grabbed the keys, keeping her in place until authorities arrived.

No one was seriously injured.

Troopers conducted a field sobriety test and she was subsequently arrested for DUI.

The woman will be charged with two felonies – aggravated DUI wrong-way and aggravated DUI with a passenger under 15.

The Department of Child Safety was notified and staffers turned the toddler over to the father.

There were 1,175 wrong-ways in the state from Jan. 1 to Aug. 12, according to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

Last year during the same period, there were 1,057 incidents.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jeremy Foster contributed to this report.

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