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Preschool teacher arrested after wrong-way crash

Posted at 2:02 PM, Feb 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-08 16:03:54-05

A preschool teacher did not set a good example when she was arrested in a wrong-way crash that nearly killed one man late last year.

Court records show that just after midnight on Dec. 14, 2015, Karina Diaz, 37, drove her Nissan Pathfinder onto I-17 going southbound in the northbound lanes near Bell Road.

Multiple witnesses told DPS officers that Diaz was going about 70 mph when she struck a Kia Borrego head-on. The Kia was driven by a man who had just gotten off work and was doing two co-workers a favor by driving them home.

That driver suffered a broken collar bone, and a fractured femur and pelvis.

Police say Diaz told them she "had five cervezas." A blood draw showed that her blood-alcohol level was 0.25.

Diaz had a warrant for her arrest issued on Jan. 28. and she was arrested later that afternoon at her home in North Phoenix.

She's been charged with assault with a deadly weapon.