A woman who caused two collisions on the Loop 202 in Chandler earlier this week was driving the wrong-way.
Despite big red signs at some freeway exit ramps that read “WRONG WAY” or “DO NOT ENTER,” wrong-way drivers continue to be a problem on Valley freeways.
Department of Public Safety Trooper Kameron Lee said, as of March 15, his agency had received more than 350 calls about wrong way drivers. That’s 55 more calls than last year at the same time.
Lee said the agency logs every wrong way call, so a car facing the wrong way to give another car a jump, could be logged as a wrong way driver. But the number of arrests has also gone up.
"We don’t really have anything we can pinpoint to attribute the increase, but we are seeing an increase," Lee said, "Last year, to date, we arrested 17 wrong way drivers for suspected impairment and to date this year we’re at 25."
Impairment is the number one factor for wrong-way drivers, Lee said. Of those 25 arrests, most, were impaired.
"Truly the bottom line is whether it’s an impaired driver, or someone is confused. It’s a driver error," Lee said. "The signage is there, everything is there to tell people not to drive that way and yet they’re still doing it. And most of the time it’s because they’re impaired."
Lee said DPS and other state agencies are trying to correct driver behavior.
