According to police, at about 2:30 a.m., the at-fault driver hit a person who was heading home from work.
Two people died, including a 32-year-old man, police said.
It wasn't immediately known if the wrong-way driver had been drinking, HPD Sgt. Dionne Griffiths said, adding that authorities will also investigate where and how the wrong-way driver entered the freeway.
"We see wrong-way drivers pretty much all year long. The only thing now is that it's closer to the holidays, so it's more tragic 'cause you know families really don't want to have tragedy around the holidays," Griffiths said.
Griffiths noted that it was because of technology that the family of the driver going the correct way on the freeway learned about the wreck.
"Phones now have technology that when there's a crash, it notifies loved ones and favorites, so they were alerted at the time of the crash," she said.
The freeway reopened shortly before 8 a.m.