Special Reports

9 Investigates wrong-way crashes on rise in North Carolina

By Jim Bradley
By Jim Bradley
The number of wrong way crashes on North Carolina interstates is rising, averaging more than one every week so far this year.

Four people from Charlotte died in two separate wrong-way crashes this summer.

But while other states are taking new steps to reduce these incidents, an Eyewitness News investigation has found North Carolina is lagging behind.

It’s been eight years since the vehicle Cassie Lawrence and her father were in was hit head-on by a wrong way driver on Interstate 485.


Bruce Lawrence died in the crash. Cassie Lawrence, who spent months in a coma, nearly died, too.

“I just wish my dad was here,” she told reporter Jim Bradley. “I had to get stents in my brain. I had to get rods in my legs.”



Lawrence said she's watched with rising concern as wrong-way crashes have continued to plague highways across the country, but especially in North Carolina.
        
So far this year, state troopers have reported a 34 percent increase -- 52 wrong-way crashes -- including one in July on Interstate 85 that took the lives of two Charlotte women and their 6-year-old niece.  
        
State troopers have been virtually powerless to stop them.

“Anything that would kind of help us do our job, could notify us to someone going the wrong way, then by all means it would be a good tool,” said North Carolina Highway Patrol Lt. Jeff Gordon.

Channel 9 went to Raleigh to talk to the head of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s safety efforts, Kevin Lacy.

“We are definitely paying attention to what the other states; research projects they're doing,” Lacy said.
  • Click play to watch advice on how to know if you are driving wrong way:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —


The other states are doing a lot more than studying wrong-way crashes. In Texas, the state has lowered the height of its wrong-way signs to make them more visible to impaired drivers, who make up the biggest percentage of wrong-way drivers.

The result is a 56 percent reduction this year in wrong-way incidents.

Florida has been even more aggressive -- adding flashing signs triggered when a driver goes the wrong way. Those signs can also send immediate pictures to a command center that can alert law enforcement and even use message boards to alert others to an oncoming wrong-way driver.

“We knew we couldn't wait. We had to do something,” said Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Kris Carson. “We feel like the signs are working.”

  • Click play to hear how crash has affected Lawrence:

But despite what Texas and Florida officials say is the success of their programs, North Carolina officials say studies of their technology are inconclusive, and so North Carolina highways have a “Do Not Enter” sign followed by a wrong way sign. Both are in compliance with federal standards, but nothing more.

“Some people would say other states are at least trying things. You're not doing anything,” Bradley asked.

“I would say that's not correct. We are doing something. We are reviewing the different options we can take,” Lacy said.

Lacy said one of those options is using the backs of existing food, gas and lodging signs to put up additional sets of wrong way signs. But even that's only being studied now.

That means disappointment for those who know firsthand the tragic consequences of wrong-way drivers.



Cassie Lawrence said state officials shouldn’t think about acting but rather do something.

The NC DOT said it hopes to begin testing putting additional wrong way signs on entrance and exit ramps by the end of the year.

North Carolina officials said the flashing signs and warning systems are worth the money, but in Florida about 20 of those systems were put in around Tampa. So far this year, there has not one wrong-way fatality in that area.

WSOC

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