A woman who was driving the wrong way on Interstate 275 in Pinellas County early Sunday morning was critically injured when her vehicle hit a van nearly head-on, the Florida Highway Patrol reports.
The crash occurred at 3:11 a.m. just north of 38th Avenue N. Troopers said a 33-year-old St. Petersburg woman was driving a sport utility vehicle north in the southbound lanes when she hit the van, which was driven by a 62-year-old woman from Bradenton.
The crash caused the sport utility vehicle to catch fire. Troopers said the SUV driver suffered critical injuries, while the woman driving the van was taken to a hospital with injuries not believed to be life threatening. Both were wearing seatbelts, troopers said.
Troopers said it’s unknown how long the woman in the SUV had been driving the wrong way. The crash closed the southbound lanes until 7:13 a.m., troopers said.
The Highway Patrol did not release the names of the people involved.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated that the woman in the van was not injured, based on a Florida Highway Patrol news release. The Highway Patrol has updated the information to say that the woman was injured and taken to a hospital.