CT DOT has added 50 wrong-way driver detectors to date. See where they all are.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation so far has installed 50 of about 120 wrong-way driver detection systems that were mandated by a state law passed in 2023, data shows.
The technology comes after were five crashes and seven deaths in 2023 caused by wrong-way drivers. The fatalities included that of state Rep. Quentin Williams, D-Middletown, who was heading home after Gov. Ned Lamont’s inaugural ball.
There were 13 such crashes and 23 fatalities in 2022, according to the DOT.
The state Department of Transportation said it analyzed more than 700 ramps in Connecticut, “especially where on and off-ramps are located on the same side of the road and the ramp locations are close to establishments that serve alcohol.”
The ramps received a “risk factor assessment” and the more risk factors there were, “the higher the location ranked on the priority list,” according to the agency.
The risk factors DOT included were:
- Multiple off-ramps that meet at the same location,
- Wrong way event history,
- Presence of businesses that serve alcohol within ½ mile of the ramp, presence of raised median or guiderail separating the on and off-ramps,
- Lack of sufficient highway illumination.
The agency then identified 236 ramps as being “high risk” and they are there “top priority to receive wrong way detection systems.”
The system works using a camera that projects an invisible grid to the off ramp, which senses if a vehicle is entering from the wrong direction, according to the DOT. When is sense a vehicle it activates flashing red lights and the lettering on the “wrong way” sign.
“And then if the person does not stop and they continue on the highway, they hit that second zone and that’s what’s going to notify our Highway Operations Center and Connecticut state police,” he said.
The DOT said is expects to have 100 wrong way detection systems with flashing lights at the high-risk locations throughout the state by the end of 2024. The map shows active locations to date:
The detection system had a success on Dec. 18, a camera recorded a driver turning around on Interstate 691’s Exit 2A, a DOT spokesman has said. After seeing the flashing lights, “the driver stopped, turned around, and entered the highway in the proper direction,” according to the DOT.