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ADOT camera captures moment wrong-way driver enters freeway before fatal crash
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ADOT camera captures moment wrong-way driver enters freeway before fatal crash

PHOENIX — Operation Safe Roads has obtained video from ADOT that shows the wrong-way driver in the Thursday morning crash entering Interstate 17 on the exit ramp.

The driver drove approximately five miles southbound in the northbound lanes before entering the Fatal accident near Jefferson Street downtown.

2 dead in wrong-way crash on I-17 near Jefferson Street in Phoenix

This video comes from ADOT thermal cameras, first installed in 2018 as a the first technology of its kind to alert law enforcement to wrong-way drivers.

ADOT thermal cameras

abc15

ADOT points out that these cameras can’t stop people from going the wrong way, but they can notify law enforcement faster — before drivers on the highway start calling 911.

The first phase a the program started in 2018 with a 15-mile stretch of I-17 to Loop 101.

Since it was installed, ADOT says they’ve detected hundreds of wrong-way drivers from their traffic operations center.

ADOT Operations Center

abc15

Over the past six years, the camera program has expanded to parts of every freeway in the Valley, including Interstate 10 at ADOT’s Broadway Curve Improvement Project.

While cameras can help drivers alert earlier, no technology alone can stop speeding drivers. ADOT has also invested in placing larger wrong-way signs across the Valley.

Wrong way driver signs

abc15

Law enforcement is still investigating why the driver was going the wrong way on I-17. ADOT says most wrong-way driving crashes involve a driver who is impaired.

See media-reported wrong-way driver incidents on Valley highways this year alone: