I-Team: New system to detect wrong-way drivers is already working

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CLEVELAND (WJW) — Video released to the FOX 8 I-Team shows wrong-way drivers suddenly stopping before getting on the highway.

We’ve found a new system to detect wrong-way drivers is already working. We obtained video from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) through a records request.

In one case, you see a driver going down a ramp to get on I-71 the wrong way. But, the driver then stops and turns around.

In another case, a driver heads the wrong way down a ramp to I-90, but you see that driver also stop long before getting to the highway.

Those ramps are among more than two-dozen in and around Cleveland now equipped with sensors to detect wrong-way drivers. The ramps also have new warning systems for drivers including flashing lights.

ODOT says, in just over a week, ten drivers have been captured on camera going down ramps to the highway the wrong way, then stopping.

We’ve shown you so many violent wrong-way crashes in Northeast Ohio. Some of them have been deadly.

Victims and their families had told us they hoped this new system would make a difference.

“So, the system certainly is working,” said ODOT Spokesman Matt Bruning.

ODOT put the new system in on ramps along I-71 and I-90 due to a chronic problem with wrong-way drivers.

Cameras with the new system are already helping to address the mystery of how many wrong-way drivers might be on the roadways.

“We’ve never had a way to quantify it by seeing people stop and turn around,” Bruning added, also saying “What exactly was the extra clue to get them to stop and turn around? We don’t know, but we do know, they did.”

ODOT expects the system to pay off as well when wrong-way drivers actually keep going onto the highway. The system will help alert police so that they won’t have to rely on a witness to call 911 and try to describe the location.

Reducing the danger, but the new system can’t eliminate it.

This week we saw a wrong-way driver involved in a crash on I-480 where there are no sensors.

ODOT says in southern Ohio, similar detection systems have led to a long-term drop in wrong-way driver crashes.

In Northeast Ohio, again, already at least 10 wrong-way drivers have been stopped.

Quite a start for the new system.

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Ed Gallek

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