Caltrans May Expand Wrong-Way Driver Program To Interstate 5
WOODLAND (CBS13) — Caltrans is looking to see whether it needs to expand a program aimed at preventing wrong-way crashes.
Two people were injured on Friday when a woman driving the wrong way on I-5 crashed into another car in Yolo County north of Woodland.
Caltrans implemented a pilot program in 2017 with researchers at UC Davis two years after a spike in wrong-way crashes on Sacramento area freeways.
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"If a vehicle is driving the wrong way up a ramp it automatically sets off the blinking wrong way sign with LED lights and also takes a photograph of the vehicle," said Caltrans spokesman Gilbert Mohtes-Chan.
The sensor system uses signs and cameras to detect when a car is going the wrong way. Caltrans sends the information in real time so the California Highway Patrol can respond and UC Davis can collect the data.
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"The locations that we picked for the pilot program where areas that we saw that might have a high incidence that drivers may go up the wrong way up the ramps," Mohtes-Chan said.
RELATED: VIDEO: Wrong-Way Driver Narrowly Misses Cars On I-80 In Sacramento
The program covers Highway 50 and portions of Interstate 80 but does not include the Interstate 5 corridor thus far. But Caltrans says it is looking into it.
"Every time there is a wrong way collision we send a team of engineers to evaluate the situation," said Mohtes-Chan.
Six people were killed in a wrong way crash in January along the same stretch of I-5.
Caltrans is waiting on the results of the UC Davis study to see if they will expand the program to I-5. UC Davis officials say the study should be completed by September 2019.