Two suspected DUI drivers create head-on collisions. One strikes a car carrying a family of four.
Troopers from the Nevada Highway Patrol are continuing to investigate two separate head-on crashes that took place this weekend; one involving a wrong-way driver on Interstate 80 in Reno.
On Saturday morning at approximately 2 am, NHP began receiving phone calls concerning a wrong-way driver on Interstate 80 near the Virginia Street interchange. The car was described as a white sedan traveling eastbound in the westbound travel lanes.
As a trooper was approaching the underpass of US 395 at the Spaghetti Bowl, he saw the car driven by 24-year-old Rachel Gordon of Reno, strike a truck-tractor pulling two trailers head-on loaded with general freight. The front of the car struck the left front and left side of the big rig.
Gordon sustained a minor injury and was transported to Renown Regional Medical Center. She admitted to taking prescription medication to troopers at the scene and an odor of alcohol was detected while she was being extricated from her vehicle by Reno Fire Department personnel.
Gordon was released from Renown and taken to the Washoe County Detention Facility to be booked for DUI and causing an accident as well as driving the wrong way on a divided highway.
While going through the booking process at the jail, deputies located prescription medication in a chewing gum container located in her purse and her booking charges were amended.
The charge of possession of dangerous drugs without a prescription, a felony, was added and her total bail was listed at $7,500 dollars. She posted bail and was released later that day.
On Sunday evening at approximately 6:39 pm, troopers were dispatched to a head-on collision on State Route 341, Geiger Grade, approximately 2 miles north of Virginia City.
The crash involved a white 1999 Ford Ranger pick-up driven by suspected DUI driver John J. McKeown, 31, of Virginia City struck a car head-on carrying a family of four driven by 35-year-old Hollie L. Alldredge of Dayton.
Along with Alldredge was her husband Cleve and their two daughters Jolie, 11, and Sydney, 16.
The vehicles came to rest on their wheels blocking at least one travel lane. All four family members were transported by ground ambulance to Reno with various injuries with 16-year-old Sydney having substantial injuries.
None of the injuries are life-threatening. McKeown only had minor injuries and he submitted to and failed a series of field sobriety tests at the crash scene.
He was placed under arrest and taken to the Storey County jail and booked on felony DUI causing substantial bodily injury and failure to maintain a travel lane. His total bail was listed at $30,097 dollars and he is still in custody Monday morning.
