Two people died in separate car crashes overnight Saturday on Loop 202 in the Phoenix area, state police officials confirmed.

The first crash involved a vehicle traveling the wrong way on the highway near Power Road in Mesa around 11 p.m. Saturday. The vehicle collided head-on with a passenger car. The driver of the car, 50-year-old Nasser Chidiac of Mesa, died, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

A passenger in Chidiac’s vehicle was also hospitalized with serious injuries. Her current condition has not been publicly disclosed.

The wrong-way driver, a 23-year-old man from San Tan, remains in hospital with life-threatening injuries. DPS said his name will not be released until he is released from the hospital. Impairment remains possible.

According to the Mesa Fire & Medical Department, several people were also taken to hospitals following the accident.

State Police confirmed another crash occurred about two hours later on Sunday in the westbound lanes of Loop 202 in Phoenix. That accident was also fatal and occurred near the 44th Street exit, state officials said.

According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, the highway lanes were closed for about two hours and reopened at 9 a.m. Sunday.

According to ADOT crash data, wrong-way violations were reported in 13 fatal crashes in Arizona in 2023. There have been 1,197 fatal crashes in the state this year.

A few years ago, state leaders took measures to reduce the number of accidents caused by wrong-way drivers in traffic.

In 2018, lawmakers and then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, increased penalties for impaired wrong-way drivers, and ADOT spent about $4 million through 2018 to install a camera system to detect wrong-way drivers on Interstate 17 in Arizona Republic reports.

The experimental system included notifications to law enforcement and signs warning other drivers.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 1 dead in wrong-way crash on Loop 202 in Mesa