The night of December 15, 2009 saw the fifth wrong-way freeway driver in the past few months. At about 10:10 p.m., Carpinteria resident Laurie Michelle Andrews drove the wrong way on the U.S. 101.
Witnesses saw Andrews driving a blue Ford Expedition south on the 101 after entering the freeway from the northbound Bath Street off-ramp.
Six CHP officers stopped her just off the freeway. CHP officer Dan Ralph spoke with Andrews at the intersection of Milpas and Ortega Streets. Andrews told him, Ralph reported, that she had been partying in downtown Santa Barbara and got lost on her way back to Carpinteria.
Smelling alcohol, Officer Ralph conducted a series of field sobriety tests. He determined Andrews to be under the influence of alcohol and arrested her.
CHP Officer Brian Barriga then arrested Mrs. Andrews’s husband, who was in the passenger seat, for disorderly conduct: being so intoxicated that he was unable to care for himself or others.