I-TEAM: Years after it came to Ohio, technology to combat wrong-way crashes coming to Montgomery Co.

DAYTON — New video shows the moments a wrong-way driver killed himself and another driver on Interstate 75 over the weekend.

The Ohio Department of Transportation is working to install technology along I-75 in Montgomery County that it said would help prevent deadly crashes like the one over the weekend.

I-Team’s Lead Investigative Reporter John Bedell is looking into this technology and why it’s just now coming to the Miami Valley.

News Center 7′s I-Team first reported on the technology and a multi-million expansion of it in 2019.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: I TEAM: Wrong Way Crashes

State troopers said this weekend’s wrong-way driver got on I-75 from Benchwood Road and crashed before anyone could report the driver.

“Was it a medical condition? Were there any impairment factors? We don’t know that information yet. It’s still under investigation,” Sgt. Tyler Ross with Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

Wrong-way crashes make up .01 percent of all crashes statewide every year, but they are 40 times more likely to be deadly than any other kind of impact.

“It is something that is extremely rare, but something we take very, very seriously because of the severity of these types of crashes,” Matt Bruning, press secretary with ODOT said.

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ODOT installed a new wrong-way driver detection system along I-71 in Hamilton County in 2019.

As the I-Team has previously reported, radar detects wrong-way drivers and flashes LED lights on signs to get the driver’s attention to get them to stop.

An alarm also goes off at a dispatch center where cameras show live video of the driver on the ramp so they can tell law enforcement.

Four years after the technology first came to Ohio, crews are putting it along 16 ramps in Montgomery County between the Austin Boulevard and Wagner Ford interchanges on I-75.

I-Team asked ODOT why it is taking so long for the technology to come to the Dayton metro area.

“We are dealing with some supply chain issues with that,” Bruning said.

“The other thing is, obviously, this is not cheap equipment. There’s a decent cost to this so we want to make sure we’re putting it in locations where that investment has a return, a safety return,” Bruning added.

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Once it’s installed, state troopers said it will help them prevent wrong-way crashes and save lives.

“It just expedites that process to be able to let us get out there as quick as we can, hopefully, intercept that driver before something bad happens, as they do over the weekend,” Ross said.

It is scheduled to be up and running by September.

This will be the second stretch of interstate in Ohio to have this technology.

We will continue following this story and update when it is installed in the area.

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