PHOENIX — A man is in custody after driving the wrong way on the Loop 303 freeway, narrowly missing dozens of cars. If not for a Valley truck driver risking his own life to intervene, the situation could have been much worse.
“I was just home in bed. I needed to run to my office," said Ruben Benavides, a Valley truck driver. "10 minutes later, I was chasing this guy down the freeway on the wrong way.”
'There we are, driving side by side. He's in the fast lane. I'm in the emergency lane.'
Around 10:30 p.m. Monday, as Benavides was driving south on the Loop 303, he saw another car getting onto the freeway. The problem? That driver was going the wrong way. Benavides, who said he had seen wrong-way drivers before, immediately called 911 and started flashing his lights to try to get the driver's attention and warn the other drivers on the road.
“He was just driving like normal, 'This is my lane. I'm just gonna keep on going,' not even noticing the headlights that were passing him," Benavides said.
His dash cam recorded everything. It even shows the red light of Arizona's wrong-way vehicle detection and alert system flashing. The system uses thermal imaging cameras to monitor freeway entrances and alert drivers and officials when a vehicle enters the wrong direction.
“I was talking to DPS and I said, 'I gotta go to the other side. I can't just sit here and watch. He's gonna hit somebody. Somebody's gonna die here. I gotta try,'" Benavides said.
Benavides watched the wrong-way driver narrowly miss oncoming cars so he decided to get closer to him.
“And there we are, driving side by side. He's in the fast lane. I'm in the emergency lane and I'm honking at him and I'm flashing my lights trying to let people know that there's something coming," Benavides said.
As soon as the driver started to slow down, Benavides pulled in front of him and caused him to stop.
“He still was oblivious to what was going on. He had no clue until I told him, 'You're going the wrong way,'" Benavides said.
The driver corrected himself, but Benavides was suspicious he was intoxicated so he kept following him, advising DPS of their location in real-time. Ultimately, he followed the driver off the freeway as he pulled into a Walmart parking lot.
"I think what he was doing is he was hiding," Benavides said.
DPS arrived a short time later and arrested the driver. He's been identified as Boris Raymundo, 32, and he is now facing an aggravated felony DUI wrong-way driving charge. Records show a breathalyzer test revealed he had a .224 BAC, nearly three times the legal limit.
As for Benavides, he's just thankful nobody got hurt.
“Maybe he would thank me for saving his life, but he's going to kill an innocent person, a family, not knowing, just driving down the freeway, and they're the ones who always get hurt first. These drivers, they usually don't," Benavides said.
It was a wrong-way driving situation that ended the right way all because one driver put his own life on the line to help.
“I wasn't even thinking of that. I was just thinking I need to stop this guy," Benavides said.
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