How do you prevent a wrong-way collision? California officials could have a solution
How can drivers stop wrong-way collisions? The California Department of Transportation and University of California Davis may have found a solution.
Caltrans and UC Davis Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology (AHMCT) Research Center released reports Monday about methods that could prevent drivers from driving the wrong way.
Wrong-way collisions account for about 1% of all crashes on California’s highway system, UC Davis said in a news release. About 37 people are killed every year in wrong-way collisions in the state.
At least 10 wrong-way driver collisions happened in Sacramento and San Diego in the first six months of 2015, prompting the creation of a three-year pilot program to understand why wrong-way driving accidents were happening, UC Davis said.
One prevention method “proved to be so effective that Caltrans has already installed” it on hundreds of miles of highways, UC Davis said.
“Adding two-way reflective markers proved to be so effective that Caltrans updated its statewide design standards,” Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin said in a news release. “It’s a low-cost measure we can use throughout the state to deter wrong way drivers and potentially save lives on California’s highway system.”
During the pilot program, the groups looked at four different technologies installed on exit ramps in Sacramento and San Diego: Two-way reflective pavement markers, “Wrong Way” signs, “Do Not Enter” signs with flashing LED lights and “Active monitoring systems that use radar to detect wrong-way drivers.”
The two-way reflective pavement markers were very effective, and decreased San Diego wrong-way drivers by 44%. Flashing LED signs also “showed promise.”
“The reflectors have already been installed on hundreds of miles of the state highway system, with the work being done over time when Caltrans is performing maintenance or overlaying pavement,” a UC Davis news release said.
UC Davis and Caltrans also looked at how wrong-way crashes happen.
“Our hypothesis was that some of the causes of wrong-way driving start before a driver enters the ramp,” researcher and AHMCT co-director Ty Lasky said in the news release. “In order to test this, we wanted (to) extend our field of view to capture as much of the roadway around the exit ramp as possible.”
Researchers set up a camera system that could record videos when it detected a wrong-way driver. The footage helped the team see the car’s path before, during and after a crash, UC Davis said.
“The video gave us a more comprehensive understanding of driver behavior and factors that contribute to wrong-way driving,” Bahram Ravani, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis and co-director of the AHMCT, said in the news release. “This opens the door for further deployment of our system across the state as counties and municipalities try to mitigate wrong-way driving.”