Police: Man dies in fiery crash with drunk driver
Gino Fanelli, gfanelli@dmg.gannett.com 6:53 p.m. EDT July 30, 2016
A Salisbury man suffered fatal injuries and his wife was seriously injured when their car burst into flames after a collision with a drunk driver in Laurel on Saturday, police say.
Just before 2 a.m. on Saturday, July 30, Douglas H. Baker Jr., 42 of Salisbury, was traveling in the right lane of U.S. Route 13 with his wife, Tracy D. Baker, 41 in a 1998 Mercedes SUV, Delaware State Police reported, near Boyce Road.
Meanwhile, Michael J. Gonzalez, 32 of Paramount, California, was driving in the same lane behind Baker in a 2014 Ford F250 with an unidentified, 44-year-old male passenger. Police believe Gonzalez was traveling at a high rate of speed when he collided with the rear of Baker's vehicle, causing it to spin out clockwise into the right side of the road. Gonzalez spun out in the same direction, his vehicle coming to a stop upon veering into the right side embankment, police said.
Baker's vehicle rotated into the embankment as well, flipping over into an area of thick brush and becoming engulfed in flames upon impact, police said. Baker was trapped in the vehicle following the crash, and police and emergency medical technicians pronounced Baker dead at the scene.
Tracy Baker, however, was able to escape the vehicle and was transported to Crozer-Chester Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania, where she is being treated for substantial burns and blunt force trauma as a result of the crash, police said.
Both Gonzalez and his passenger were transported to Nanticoke Memorial Hospital, where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries. Gonzalez was charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, first-degree vehicular assault, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving without insurance, driving without a valid license and being inattentive, police said. He was later arraigned at Justice of the Peace Court Three in Georgetown.
Gonzalez has been transferred to Sussex Correctional Institute and is currently being held on a $40,000 bond.
The Collision Reconstruction Unit is still continuing their investigation on this accident.