CLEVELAND — The Ohio Department of Transportation is looking to prevent wrong-way crashes along one busy section of a Northeast Ohio corridor. As of Tuesday, 25 ramps along Interstates 71 and 90 are fitted with wrong-way detection devices.
"We know that wrong-way crashes make up a small percentage of all the total crashes that we see on the roadways," said ODOT spokesperson Brent Kovacs.
"We're talking about point 0.1% of all crashes," Kovacs said. "but more than 40% of the time wrong-way crashes are likely to be fatal."
The ramps have large signs equipped with. LED lights can be triggered by wrong-way drivers and alert them that they are going the wrong way. Cameras alert state transportation
officials in Columbus, who, in turn, decide if the alarm is valid or not to mobilize the highway patrol to intercept the wrong-way driver.
"A lot of times when we see wrong-way crash crashes," Kovacs said. "They're an innocent motorist, unfortunately."
Crash data was taken from 2016-2019, and Kovacs said alcohol was a contributing factor.
“To the point that when we were looking where to put this corridor, we needed to look at that as a factor of where to put the signs,” said Kovacs.
