CT DOT installing new detection systems to help prevent wrong-way crashes. What you need to know.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation this week began fulfilling part of a state law passed earlier this year requiring the installation of wrong-way driver detection systems at 120 of the state’s most at-risk highway off-ramps.

The new detection system installations come on the heels of a particularly deadly year on Connecticut’s roads in 2022, when 13 crashes involving wrong-way drivers took the lives of 23 people. So far in 2023, six people have died during four wrong-way driver crashes, including a crash that killed state Rep. Quentin Williams, a Middletown Democrat who was struck by a wrong-way driver in January after leaving the governor’s inaugural ball.

“That’s six too many,” said Josh Morgan, spokesperson for the DOT. “There shouldn’t be any wrong-way crashes.”

According to Morgan, the DOT is required by law — passed in the wake of Williams’ death — to install systems that detect wrong-way drivers at 120 highway off-ramps in the state. Installations began this week when laws passed earlier this year took effect on Oct. 1. The timeline of the installations will largely depend on the length and severity of colder weather in the coming weeks and months.

Morgan said the DOT first installed a wrong-way driver detection system in Danbury in early 2020 as part of a pilot program and then about a dozen more at various locations in the state. The older systems included flashing lights to let a driver know he or she was on the wrong side of the highway.

The newer systems now being installed include two detection zones, the first of which activates illuminated signage, which is followed by a second zone that notifies Connecticut State Police and the Highway Operations Center if the driver continues far enough up the ramp.

Though the law passed earlier this year mandates the installation of 120 of these new systems, Morgan said DOT officials would like to see one put in place at each of Connecticut’s off-ramps that have been deemed “high-risk.” These include ramps that are close to establishments that serve alcohol as well as those that are adjacent to an on-ramp.

“All 236 identified as high-risk we’d like to see done,” Morgan said.

Morgan added that, while data has shown wrong-way driver detection systems reduce the likelihood of these types of crashes, alcohol impairment continues to be the underlying issue responsible in a majority of accidents involving a wrong-way driver. He said “virtually all” of these crashes involve an impaired driver, with some motorists who are two to three times the legal limit.

“It’s sad and disappointing that people are choosing to get behind the wheel when they shouldn’t,” Morgan said.