It’s one of the most frightening scenarios any Watertown driver can imagine: driving on I-84 late at night when a pair of headlights suddenly appear and quickly grow bigger and bigger. Someone is driving on the wrong side of the highway and coming straight at you at highway speeds. You have a few seconds at most to get out of the way or suffer a head-on collision.
Thankfully, wrong-way car crashes are rare, but when they happen, they are among the deadliest and most violent types of car accidents on Connecticut’s roads. The force of two vehicles crashing straight on at high speed is enough to kill or permanently disable everyone involved. Anything that could eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, the number of wrong-way car accidents would greatly improve public safety.
Is GPS traffic monitoring the solution?
As GPS and other technology have become commonplace, it is now relatively easy to track individual vehicles on the highway. Many highways now have this technology so that authorities are alerted to a wrong-way vehicle. Unfortunately, police often cannot find the car in time to pull it over and prevent a tragedy. One solution could be to send a targeted emergency message to drivers on the same road so they can get out of the way. Tech company Bosch says it has a system using existing GPS technology to alert drivers through their phones or dashboard computers when they are going the wrong way.
Unlikely to go away entirely
These solutions could help stop terrible car accidents one day. But human error and carelessness will still lead to serious injury. When it does, victims need to know their rights and how to get maximum financial compensation. A visit with a personal injury attorney can start answering those questions.