LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Nevada Department of Transportation is planning to install 12 wrong-way driver warning systems in the Las Vegas valley.

The new systems are said to start right at the spaghetti bowl and stretch along I-11 to Rainbow Boulevard. On top of that, the plan is to install new overhead road signs that tell drivers what to expect with traffic up ahead. It’s all part of the goal to make roads safer.

Friday morning, a wrong-way crash resulted in the death of 18-year-old Marilyn Rodriguez, who was the passenger in the car going the wrong way on I-11 and boulder highway.

Trooper Shawn Haggstrom with Nevada State Police said the driver of that car is recovering in the hospital and several other people were injured in the other car.

Charges against the wrong-way driver are possible. This crash brings up the discussion of how to stop this.

NDOT is installing flashing light systems that detect wrong-way drivers with radar. NDOT Public Information Officer Kelsey McFarland explained they started up in northern Nevada, and four of them have made their way to the valley.

Early data from the northern systems show promising results.

“Nearly 90% of drivers who saw those wrong way driver detection systems flash did turn around and never ended up entering the freeway in the wrong direction,” McFarland said.

Now, the plan is to bring 12 of them to I-11, which many know as US-95. With each wrong-way driver system costing up to $300,000 it will be a while before they’re a common sight.

“It’s the combination of the cost of that and then also the need to upgrade technology at a lot of these on and off ramps throughout the valley,” McFarland said.

They’re part of a $31 million initiative to bring new tech to the stretch of freeway. That includes digital signs that warn drivers about lane congestions.

What it doesn’t include are spike strips. McFarland says many people have asked NDOT why they don’t install them on ramps. Among many other reasons, she says they don’t function effectively above five miles per hour, can’t handle high traffic volume and could stop emergency vehicles.

At the end of the day, technology can only do so much.

“We can’t engineer our way out of drivers making wrong decisions and bad decisions behind the wheel,” McFarland said.

McFarland said more than half of wrong-way crashes nationwide involve impaired drivers. The project still needs to go to bid, but early phases of the project are expected to start next year.

Source link