Woman driving wrong way on Beltway 8 shut down by deputy constables

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It could have been much worse.

Deputy constables from multiple agencies were able to bring a wrong-way driver to a stop Thursday morning on Houston's south side.

It began around 2 a.m. along South Beltway 8 near Cullen Boulevard.

The driver of a Dodge Magnum was eastbound in the westbound lanes of the tollway when deputies finally intercepted her by using spike strips to flatten the vehicle's tires near Pasadena Boulevard.

She came close to striking several vehicles during the ordeal, authorities said.

Once stopped, deputies pulled the driver out of the vehicle, and she was evaluated by medics.

It wasn't clear where she got on the tollway or if she will be charged.

The incident is the latest in a series of wrong-way drivers recently across the Houston area.

On Sunday, a woman was killed when a driver headed the wrong way slammed into the vehicle she was riding in on I-45 near Rayford Road.

Nely Martinez, 22, died in the crash, and her boyfriend, Osvaldo Sanchez, was injured.

A 2-year-old child died in July in a crash along the Eastex Freeway at North Loop 610. A woman headed southbound in the northbound lanes of the freeway crashed into a family's vehicle with the child and his family inside. His parents and two other children were critically hurt in that crash.

The Texas Department of Transportation has installed detection systems on some Houston freeways including US-59/I-69, and is looking to expand that system to including I-45. So far, there's no word on when that may happen.