
LOS ANGELES – A judge on Thursday imposed the maximum sentence on a 54-year-old man who drove his pickup truck the wrong way on the 14 Freeway in June and caused a pileup that seriously injured three local residents.
Rick Allen Walker was sentenced to seven years in state prison, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. Walker pleaded no contest on Aug. 19 to four counts of D.U.I. causing injury.
Walker admitted that he was driving under the influence on June 17 when he drove his 1998 Dodge Ram pickup the wrong way during rush hour traffic. Walker was traveling about 85 miles per hour when he entered the northbound lanes of the 14 Freeway, traveling southbound from Escondido Canyon.
Walker passed two CHP officers working a traffic collision on the right shoulder, before crashing head on into a Dodge 2500 pickup truck.
The crash started a started a chain reaction collision that involved nine vehicles. Among the injured were Lancaster resident Fernando Lopez, 48, and Palmdale residents David Becker, 53, and Maryann Looram, 59.
Deputy District Attorney Ani Bailey of the San Fernando Branch Office prosecuted the case. The case was investigated by the California Highway Patrol.
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