How the NCTA plans to prevent wrong-way crashes

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, a majority of wrong-way crashes stem from intoxicated drivers.

Since 2000, reports show 145 people have died and 643 have been injured.

Officials with the North Carolina Turnpike Authority will start to implement new measures to prevent these accidents.

The pilot program will begin in 2018 on NC 540, also known as the Triangle Expressway.

The highway already has do not enter signs and sensors to detect wrong-way drivers.

But now, officials will install 16 enhanced versions of those signs.

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They will flash and alert traffic supervisors when there's a driver going in the wrong direction. In addition to email notifications, traffic monitors will also receive pop-up alerts on their screens.

"That way they get alerted sooner," said Beau Memory, executive director of NC Turnpike Authority. "They have an immediate video image of a car going in the wrong direction, and they can provide better information to first responders"

The goal is to reduce the number of wrong turns and hopefully save lives.

Officials have not decided where the signs will be located along the Triangle Expressway.

If the pilot program is successful, officials said it could be expanded to other highways in the Triangle.

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