Driver identified in deadly crash on I-10

ALEA release
Posted 4/23/19

WILCOX, Alabama — A Texas man has been identified as the driver of the vehicle that smashed head-on into another vehicle driving the wrong way on Interstate 10 while attempting to flee from a …

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Driver identified in deadly crash on I-10

Posted

WILCOX, Alabama — A Texas man has been identified as the driver of the vehicle that smashed head-on into another vehicle driving the wrong way on Interstate 10 while attempting to flee from a Baldwin County Sheriff’s Deputy earlier this month, killing himself and four others.

ALEA officials say 26-year-old Dominic Scotti Garcia Jr. of San Antonio, Texas, was driving a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu traveling east bound on I-10 on Monday, April 1 when a deputy with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office attempted to stop the vehicle at the 49-mile marker, approximately four miles west of the Wilcox exit. The stop was for a moving violation the deputy witnessed, according to a BCSO release issued April 1.

The suspect vehicle accelerated attempting to out run the deputy. The vehicle exited I-10 at the Wilcox exit and reentered the interstate west bound. The vehicle then exited the interstate and went south bound on the Baldwin Beach Express. The vehicle did a U-turn on the Baldwin Beach Express and reentered the interstate west bound.

The deputy continued to try and stop the vehicle as it continued west bound. The suspect vehicle did a U-turn on the interstate and drove east bound in the west bound lane at a high rate of speed.

The deputy lost sight of the suspect vehicle as it continued to drive into oncoming traffic. The suspect vehicle impacted a 2018 Ford Escape head-on as it was traveling west bound, killing Garcia, two passengers in his vehicle, one of whom has been identified as 34-year-old Crystal Lee Moradie of Converse, Texas; and a passenger in the Escape, 54-year-old Kevin J. Andrews of Milton, Florida.

The fiery crash resulted in the closure of both lanes of westbound I-10 for a little more than four hours as crews worked to clear the scene, according to Tuesday’s release.

The driver of the Escape, identified as 81-year-old Joseph L. Andrews of St. Simons Island, Georgia, the father of the vehicle’s passenger, was airlifted to University Hospital in Mobile for treatment of serious injuries. It was announced on Thursday, April 4 that he had died of his injuries.

The other passenger in the Malibu has not yet been identified. ALEA officials said on Monday, according to the coroner, it could take months to identify other passenger.