New system targets highway ramp crashes

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Fog, distractions, drowsiness, inattention, drinking, illegal drugs or legitimate medication — all can cause a driver to wind up going the wrong way on a freeway.

The results can be fatal.

Now transportation officials are installing two warning systems, each costing $25,000, to try to stop drivers who mistake exits for on-ramps.

The systems, funded by a $50,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration, include signs that light up "WRONG WAY" in red if a motorist enters an exit ramp, flashers that blink for a couple of minutes and cameras to record driver behavior.

One set was installed in July at the Bow Hill Road interchange on I-5 in Skagit County, where there have been at least three serious wrong-way crashes in the past five years.

The other will be placed early in 2002 at a freeway ramp to be determined in the Seattle-Everett area.

Statistics show Washington has about 80 wrong-way crashes on freeways and limited-access highways annually, nearly half in King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties.

The federal agency also is funding similar wrong-way warning experiments in other states.

"Do we think it’s going to stop 100 percent of the wrong-way accidents? Probably not — but if it stops 50 percent of them, that’s pretty good," said Harry Bennetts, an assistant federal highway administrator in Olympia.

Another experiment began in May 2001 with installation of cameras to monitor both I-82 exit ramps at Toppenish.

Over 10 years there have been nine wrong-way crashes, most causing deaths, within five miles of that interchange in daylight and within 10 miles at night, said Jim Mahugh, a state transportation engineer in Yakima County.

Since then, the cameras have shown 18 drivers starting onto the freeway going the wrong way, of which 13 turned around and five continued without crashing.

Mahugh decided not to try flashing signs in Toppenish, citing experience in California that suggests that because the signals face an errant driver, they might be mistaken for confirmation that the car is actually going the right way.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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