PAWTUCKET – Another freeway exit is getting a wrong-way driver detection system, flashes at drivers that they are about to enter the freeway in the wrong direction.
The Rhode Island Department of Transportation is installing the system, already at 31 intersections, the nights of July 30 and 31, at Exit 41A (Downtown Pawtucket) off of I-95 North in Pawtucket.
Exit 41A will be closed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on July 30 and 31 so crews can install the new system. A detour will send drivers to Exit 41B (School Street).
Wrong-way detection system often used
The wrong-way driver detection and alert system is already installed at 31 intersections. The off-ramp will make it the 32nd to be installed.
Additional systems are set to be installed on off-ramps along Route 146, part of that highway’s new design, he said.
Since the systems were first installed in 2015, they have activated 850 times. During that time period, there has only been one fatal crash resulting from a wrong-way driver entering on an exit with the system installed, Department of Transportation Spokesman Charles St. Martin said. There was one other, non-fatal crash as well.
Between 2008 and 2015, when 24 initial systems were installed, 13 people died across 10 wrong-way crashes on state highways and freeways, he said.
According to the state’s website, Rhode Island’s system is modeled after a system in San Antonio, Texas.
“When it was adopted, we worked with State Police to identify ramps at greater risk,” St. Martin said. “It tends to be older-style ramps, where the on- and off-ramps are right next to each other, as opposed to the clover leaf design.”
Other state departments of transportation, and media in other states, have sought information on Rhode Island’s system as other states look at ways to reduce driving deaths, he said.
How they work
A radar system is set up to detect wrong-way drivers. Once it detects one, flashing lights on the “WRONG WAY” signs start flashing. Most of the people driving the wrong way see these signs, realize the mistake, and turn around on the ramp, St. Martin said.
“In most cases, they’re stopping or self correcting,” he said.
The notification of a wrong-way driver goes to Department of Transportation officials who can then call State Police. They can then also change the signs on the freeway to notify drivers of an incoming wrong-way driver. However, they haven’t had to do that yet.
St. Martin said it seems like the system is working, considering how few crashes and fatalities there have been on the ramps that have the systems installed.
“850 times, people went the wrong way, and we know it went off, they turned around,” he said. “That’s potentially a lot of additional crashes.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Wrong-way alert system being installed on I-95 North’s Exit 41A