Dallas North Tollway wrong-way crashes prompt look at deterrents

Area highway authorities are scrambling to figure out what they can do to stanch a spate of recent wrong-way crashes – including one on the Dallas North Tollway early Sunday – that have claimed the lives of four people already this year and seriously injured several more.
Officials with the North Texas Tollway Authority place most of the blame on intoxicated drivers and say they are researching ways to alert law-abiding motorists when wrong-way drivers are headed at them.
"People drink and drive," said Steve Lombardi, an Iowa personal injury attorney who has tracked wrong-way driving incidents across the country for nearly two years. "It's human nature."
Wrong-way driving has been reduced in some places by lowering warning signs to eye level, installing flashing signs that warn drivers of an approaching wrong-way motorist and putting down reflectorized wrong-way pavement arrows.
In Harris County, a system of 14 sensors that detect wrong-way drivers at exit ramps along the Westpark Tollway has been triggered 10 times since being installed last year. All of the drivers were stopped before they caused an accident. Six of them were suspected of being under the influence.
The sensors, which cost between $25,000 and $50,000, depending on infrastructure needs, use the same wireless microwave technology used to detect vehicles at traffic lights and to report traffic conditions on freeways.
When a wrong-way driver is detected, an audio and visual alarm is instantly sent to the tollway dispatch center, where dispatchers then verify the wrong-way vehicle via surveillance cameras.
With the click of a button, a message is transmitted on the roadway's message board to inform motorists that a wrong-way driver is headed their way and to instruct them to pull over to the shoulder.
"Wrong-way detection does not stop wrong-way drivers," said Randy Johnson, administrator of incident management for the Harris County Toll Road Authority, among the first agencies in the nation to use the sensors on such a scale. "It gives law enforcement and the motorists a heads-up."

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