One dead, another arrested in separate multiple-vehicle collisions on US-101 in Palo Alto

All lanes in both directions of U.S. Highway 101 have reopened and a woman who was struck by a vehicle on the southbound freeway is in surgery in the aftermath of separate multiple-vehicle and major-injury collisions on U.S. Highway 101 early Sunday morning.

At least one person has died, another has been arrested on suspicion of felony DUI and several people sent to the hospital in the series of collisions that started just after 2 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.

The first collision occurred at about 2:08 a.m. when a wrong-way driver on northbound U.S. 101 seriously injured another motorist in a head-on collision, CHP Officer Dave Morey said. The wrong-way driver died at the scene. The CHP is investigating whether drugs or alcohol were factors in that collision.

At about 2:30 a.m., two separate collisions occurred on the southbound side of the freeway, Morey said, both of which are suspected to have occurred as the motorists were looking at the collision scene on the northbound side. In the first collision, one vehicle rear-ended the other on southbound U.S. 101 approximately 75 yards south of the northbound collision 
scene.

Sometime not long after that, a woman in the vehicle that was hit from behind walked into the southbound lanes and was struck by another vehicle on the freeway, Morey said. The driver of the vehicle that hit her has been arrested on suspicion of felony DUI as drugs or alcohol are believed 
to be factors in the collision. The suspect's name hasn't been released. The three other people connected to that collision were also transported to Stanford Hospital.

All southbound lanes were cleared just before 5 a.m. and the northbound lanes were reopened at 6:40 a.m.