NAUGATUCK, Conn. (WTNH) — We are entering the holiday season, which is usually the deadliest time of the year on Connecticut highways.
On Monday, Governor Ned Lamont and Department of Transportation officials said their new technology to stop wrong way drivers is working.
Lamont was joined by Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto and Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins, among others.
There’s bene a spike in wrong-way driving crashes in Connecticut over the last few years. In 2022, 23 people in our state died in wrong way highway crashes.
But now the state says new technology is turning the tide.
Last year the state passed a law to install wrong way driver warning technology on off ramps across the state.
The goal was to have 120 of them installed before the end of this year.
On Monday, state officials announced they are ahead of schedule, with that new tech up and running at 125 high risk off ramps. They said that technology has already saved a number of lives.
The goal is now to have the wrong way tech up at 135 off ramps by the end of this year.
The warning signals also record video and the state says it has hundreds of incidents where drivers saw the warning and turned around.
CREDIT: News 8 WTNH Darren Kramer
