Sanchez Rivera Booked on Three Counts of Vehicular Homicide

East Ridge News Online has learned more about a car crash that claimed the lives of three people early Saturday morning.

According to Monday’s booking reports from the Hamilton County Jail, 24-year-old Yerson Ysaac Sanchez Rivera, of a Roanoke Avenue address in Chattanooga was booked on three charges of vehicular homicide, three counts of Duty to Render Aid, Driving Under the Influence, and several other various charges.

A law enforcement source told East Ridge News Online that the crash happened at about 5:45 a.m. on Saturday just inside the tunnels on Ringgold Road.

A Honda Civic, allegedly driven by Sanchez Rivera was estimated to be travelling between 50 and 60 miles per hour as it entered the tunnels headed toward Chattanooga. The driver lost control at the slight curve entering the tunnel and crashed through the pedestrian guardrail.

A female passenger in the front seat was crushed, and two passengers in the backseat of the vehicle were killed. East Ridge Police identified the victims as Kimberlyn Lopez Gallard, 29, Alexandra Vera, 24, and Edguar Medina, estimated age of 20 to 25.

The source said that the Sanchez Rivera ran from the crash scene and was apprehended by Chattanooga police officers.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.