March 1, 2010 San Diego

Early Sunday morning Officer Deputy Ken Collier, 39, died at the hospital after being in a car accident that happened on the freeway between Tierrasanta and Santee.

Collier was heading west on route 52 when he noticed a driver driving on the wrong side of the road. The deputy then turned around to try to overtake the wrong way driver. For concern of the other drivers on the road the deputy contacted dispatch about the driver. While trying to overtake the wrong way driver Collier struck a center median bridge abutment and rolled several hundred of feet and eventually came to a stop in a deep ravine.

Ryan Debillis was in the car with Collier at the time of the accident and is expected to make a full recovery. Collier radioed dispatch and Debillis contacted Communications Center with his cell phone notifying them that they had crashed and ended up in a ravine. Collier was thrown from the vehicle which is probably why he obtained more serious injuries. It is not clear at the time weather or not they were wearing seatbelts.

Deputy Collier and Debillis were both responsive but seriously injured. Collier was taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital and died at 5:30 a.m.

The alleged drunk driver of the other vehicle was 22-year-old Jose Jasso Lopez. He was caught near the scene of the accident and is charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving.

San Diego DUI Lawyers

Tags: california, driving under the influence, drunk driving lawyers, DUI, dwi, San Diego