Wrong-way driver from Cotati causes Highway 101 crash, minor injuries

Headed in the wrong direction on Highway 101, a Cotati driver later arrested on suspicion of drunken driving crashed into an oncoming vehicle before dawn Sunday in San Rafael, CHP officials said.

Suspected wrong-way driver Javier Jaquin Sosa, 32, and three people in another vehicle suffered minor injuries in the 2 a.m. Sunday collision, Officer Andrew Barclay said.

The crash occurred just three days after a Santa Rosa resident and owner of a popular tree nursery was killed by another wrong-way driver near the Sonoma-Marin county line.

Sunday’s crash occurred around 2 a.m. on the highway near the Merrydale Road overcrossing, Barclay said.

Sosa was behind the wheel of a 2000 Mercedes sedan and traveling north in the southbound lanes.

Behind the wheel of a southbound 2013 Honda Fit - headed in the correct direction - driver David Bannister, 68, of San Pablo maneuvered to avoid a head-on crash, and the vehicles’ left sides collided, Barclay said.

Both vehicles came to rest on the right shoulder.

Witnesses stopped to help Sosa, who was injured. Three people in the Honda got out of the vehicle by themselves and declined medical treatment, Barclay said.

Sosa showed “objective signs of intoxication” at the crash scene, Barclay said. He was taken to Marin General Hospital before being booked into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of felony DUI charges, driving the wrong way on a freeway causing injury and driving without a license or vehicle insurance.

Officials said Sosa’s blood-alcohol level was measured at above 0.15 percent. The state’s legal limit is 0.08 percent.

Friday’s crash occurred about 1 a.m. on northbound Highway 101 north of the San Antonio Road exit. CHP officials said Santa Rosa driver Kristine Collier, 47, was traveling south on northbound Highway 101 when she crashed head-on into a vehicle driven by Sachiko Umehara.

Both women suffered major injuries. Umehara died at Marin General Hospital.

Umehara and her husband, Mike, own Momiji Nursery on Stony Point Road in Santa Rosa, which was established in 1979.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.