A 79-year-old Daleville woman driving in the wrong direction on U.S. 84 Saturday night was killed after she collided head-on with another vehicle. She has been identified as Michiko Sandlin of Chinook Drive.
At the time of the accident, Sandlin was following an ambulance that was transporting her husband, Claude “Buddy” Sandlin, to Flowers Hospital in Dothan. Officials in Daleville said Mr. Sandlin suffered from chronic health problems.
Mrs. Sandlin apparently turned onto the wrong lane as she got onto 84 around the location of Christa’s Bakery Store. She was eastbound into westbound traffic, when she struck another vehicle around 10:30 p.m.
Dale County Coroner Woody Hilboldt pronounced Sandlin dead at the scene at 11:40 p.m. She was transported to Dale Medical Center by Daleville Rescue.
Hilboldt said he did not know who was in the other vehicle, other than it was a woman who was transported by Advanced Life Support from Fort Rucker, to a local hospital. She sustained hand injuries but was not seriously hurt. Authorities said she was also in her 70s.
The Eagle will update this story as more information becomes available.
This is the second head-on crash in two years in the area involving someone traveling the wrong way on U.S. 84. Former University of Alabama football player Siran Stacy was pulling onto 84 from Highway 123 at Wicksburg in November 2007 when a motorist going the wrong way struck his van, killing his wife and four of his children.
Stacy has filed a wrongful death and negligence suit against the Dothan/Houston County E-911 Board, and the driver of the vehicle that hit him. The other driver, Adam Wayman, died the next day from injuries sustained in that accident.
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