Friend remembers woman killed in weekend wrong-way crash along Loop 101

PHOENIX (FOX 10) -- According to DPS, 16 people have been killed in wrong-way crashes in 2019, the latest victim being a 20-year-old woman from Goodyear.

LaiQuan Lemon was killed in a crash along the loop 101 over the weekend. Before moving to Arizona, Lemon lived in Arkansas. Now, one of Lemon's good friends is talking about the victim.

LaHarya Roberson is still reliving the images she's seen over social media from Loop 101, and wishes she had one more chance to see her.

"I'm really just trying to hold myself together," said Roberson, in a phone interview.

Roberson will admit she's struggling. She says she hoped to celebrate Lemon's 21st birthday in December. Now all Roberson has are childhood memories of her best friend.

"When she first moved to Arkansas, nobody else wanted to be her friend, and I was the only person who made her my friend," said Roberson.

Lemon spent her teenage years in Arkansas before moving to Arizona, where she became an EMT. Roberson says she loved helping people and was always the life of the party. Even though long-distance, Roberson says she and Lemon kept in touch all the time.

Meanwhile, DPS officials say a 22-year-old Phoenix woman driving a Chevrolet Malibu went north in the southbound lanes on the Loop 101, crashing into Lemon's Nissan sedan.

"It's really hard, but I'm trying my best, and I'm pretty sure all the other friends or everybody else that she met in Arizona and wherever else, and the people she met while she was in school and going through training and whatever else kinda feel the same way," said Roberson, who went on to say she will always remember how Lemon carried herself, as well as her love for life.

"Just her being around me made everything so much better," said Roberson.

DPS investigators are still investigating the crash, and it's not yet known if the suspected driver going the wrong way was impaired.