Driver killed in Las Vegas crash 3 times over legal blood-alcohol limit

A wrong-way driver killed in a freeway crash in Las Vegas had a blood-alcohol content more than three times the legal limit at the time of the wreck, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.

Authorities said Ericka Avila, 27, was driving the wrong way on Interstate 15 near Cheyenne Avenue on Nov. 14 when her car hit another head-on at 3:30 a.m., causing a chain reaction crash involving multiple vehicles. Avila died at the scene and two people who were in an SUV that she hit were taken to University Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries, authorities said at the time.

Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin told the Review-Journal on Thursday that Avila’s blood-alcohol content was 0.252. The legal limit in Nevada is 0.08.

The crash was one of three fatal wrong-way crashes on I-15 during a three-week period. On Dec. 3 authorities said Henderson resident Frank Magliarditi, 39, was killed when a vehicle he was driving southbound in the northbound lanes of I-15 slammed into an 18-wheeler.

Then, on Dec. 5, two people were killed in a wrong-way crash caused by the driver of an Oldsmobile on I-15 near Jean. Killed in that crash was Frank Thomas, 42, of Jean, and a second motorist, John L. Camilo, 51, of Valley Village, California. Authorities have not specified which driver was headed in the wrong direction, but Thomas’ personal information matches the description of the wrong-way driver provided by authorities at the crash scene, who said the Oldsmobile driver was a 42-year-old from the Primm area.

After the crashes, the Review-Journal sought the blood-alcohol contents of all three wrong-way drivers from the Clark County coroner’s office. As of Thursday, blood-alcohol tests on the other two drivers were still pending, Kulin said.

Avila’s extremely high blood-alcohol content falls in line with the levels that experts say are common in wrong-way driving crashes.

“Two out of three wrong-way crashes are caused by impaired drivers and often these drivers have blood-alcohol levels more than twice the legal limit,” according to the Arizona Department of Transportation, which like Nevada has sought engineering solutions for interstate on-ramps and off-ramps that could help deter wrong-way drivers.

The Nevada Department of Transportation is implementing a pilot program at the U.S. Highway 95 off-ramp at Durango Drive in the northwest Las Vegas Valley. The system uses a camera and an electronic sensor, which alerts wrong-way drivers on the off-ramp by triggering strobe-like beacons on wrong-way signs.

The Nevada Highway Patrol said it has been dispatched on nearly 400 calls for wrong-way drivers in Southern Nevada as of Dec. 12, according to the agency.

Trooper Jason Buratczuk said there have been 384 calls in 2019. In 2018, there were 443.

“These are sobering numbers,” Buratczuk said in a statement. “We know four people in the last few weeks have been killed in Southern Nevada due to wrong way driving.”

Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0390. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.