A speeding driver who hit several vehicles on the west side Friday has died.
According to Tucson police Sgt. Pete Dugan, the driver, 59-year-old Edward Robert Lopez, was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and later died.
Lopez was driving a white 2009 Acura and was headed eastbound on W. Sweetwater Dr. when he hit the back of another eastbound car. This crash caused the second car to rolled down an embankment off the roadway and into a ditch. The driver of this car was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Lopez continued driving eastbound at 80 mph in the westbound traffic lanes and ran a red light at the Silverbell intersection.
The driver continued further, careening through the new Pima Animal Care Center facility's entrance, then launching over the curb and hitting several more vehicles, causing a chain reaction that sent vehicles crashing into other vehicles. The vehicle hit a pickup truck head-on, rolled on top of that truck and came to a rest. There was a person in one of the parked cars who was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.
A total of nine vehicles were damaged in the incident, police say.
Police say speed was an obvious factor in the collision but there were no signs of impairment. Detectives are working to determine if Lopez had a medical emergency that caused the crash.
The new PACC facility was not damaged, county representatives confirmed. The facility remains open.
The main parking lot was closed but an alternate lot north of Silverbell and Sweetwater remains open.
Fatal Vehicle Collision: W. Sweetwater Dr. and N. Silverbell Rd.
The multi-vehicle collision from December 22nd has now turned fatal.
See link for details -> https://t.co/tjefXwLAi2 pic.twitter.com/NTaqMB8a3o— Tucson Police Dept (@Tucson_Police) December 24, 2017
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