Connecticut’s Bond Commission approved $20 million in borrowing Friday for the purchase of equipment designed to help prevent drivers from going the wrong way down the state’s highways after nearly a dozen wrong-way crashes led to 20 deaths this year.
Under the program, the state Department of Transportation plans to install cameras on wrong-way signs across the state, which will trigger flashing lights when a wrong-way driver is detected.
According to statistics from the the Connecticut Transportation Institute at the University of Connecticut, there have been 11 fatal wrong-way accidents this year, resulting in 20 deaths. There were three fatal wrong-way crashes in the state in 2020 and four in 2021, according to the Institute.
“It’s shocking,” Gov. Ned Lamont said after Friday’s meeting. “Obviously, coming out of the pandemic we saw a lot of people driving like a bat out of hell and some extreme driving behavior.”
Officials said about 80% of the accidents involved drivers impaired by alcohol or other substances.
Lamont said state police also have increased patrols and other enforcement activities in an attempt to curb the problem.
“I can guarantee you it is not infrastructure related,” Eric Jackson, the executive director of the Connecticut Transportation Institute, told Hearst Connecticut Media. “The roads and off-ramps have not changed in the last year. It is 100% a driver behavior and human factors issue. Drivers are behaving badly on the roads.”
The latest fatal crash occurred Sunday in Bridgeport. A van traveling the wrong way on Route 8 struck a car carrying a mother and her two children, police said. The mother was killed along with a passenger in the van.
Topics Connecticut
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Harvard Study Again Stirs the Pot on Demotech Ratings of Florida Carriers 
Trump’s Bond Insurer Tells Judge Shortfall Is ‘Inconceivable’ 
Grand Jury Indicts ‘Hole in Won’ Owner on Prize Insurance Fraud Charges 
Progressive Records Five-Fold Increase in Q1 Net Income 
