Investigators believe both drivers who were killed in a violent crash early Tuesday morning on Interstate 80 were distracted. Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Scott Bright says the crash happened just before 1 a.m. near Des Moines and involved one driver who was traveling east in the westbound lanes.
“What we know is that he was drinking, he was heading in the wrong direction and he was traveling well in excess of the speed limit,” Bright said. The other driver was watching a movie on a DVD player while he was traveling down the interstate, according to Bright.
Twenty-five-year-old Brandon Anderson of Des Moines was driving a Mini Cooper in the wrong direction on I-80. His car slammed head-on into a car driven by 53-year-old Kevin O’Sullivan of Elizabeth, Illinois.
Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene. Bright said neither driver hit their brakes. “There were no skid marks at all,” Bright said. Police are still trying to determine how fast each vehicle was going, but Bright said Anderson was clearly traveling significantly faster than the 65 mile an hour speed limit in the area.
At least two other vehicles avoided collisions with Anderson’s car before he crashed into the car driven by O’Sullivan. Investigators believe Anderson traveled roughly two miles in the wrong direction on the interstate.