LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — New technology is coming to some Arkansas highways between Little Rock and Memphis— It is coming in the form of a $55-million project that aims to improve drivers' safety and prevent head-on collisions.
If you've ever made a wrong turn onto a one-way street, you know how scary and dangerous it can be. Well, a new wrong-way detection system aims to prevent that from happening and to stop potential crashes.
"The camera goes off and the person is alerted many times. They will self-correct. You see them in a video, they'll turn around and whatever. But sometimes they don't. And so one time could be too many," Dave Parker with ARDOT said.
"The lights will go off. The driver is alerted that way, which signals to us here at our traffic management center that there has been a runway detection happening out there. We immediately contact Arkansas State Police," he added.
Parker said it's a joint effort with authorities to get the drivers' attention if they've made a wrong turn on an exit ramp. He also explained how it's something that happens more often than you might think, especially at Interstate 440 and Highway 165.
"We did a test in August and we had five wrong-way detections in a month, which may not sound like a lot, but any wrong way is bad enough," he said.
Parker said 21 of those incidents were recorded in ARDOT's last wrong-way detection report from across the state.
"There could have been five times that people going the wrong way, but it's not recorded because there was not an accident you know, involved in that. So yeah, I mean, it's a problem nationwide. It's why we got it on our radar," he added.
If people don't self-correct and continue going the wrong way onto the interstate, then state police will work to find that driver.
People traveling nearby will also see alerts on interstate message boards to keep an eye out as well.
"We don't want anything to happen out there. So that's why we're installing these," he said.
Parker said crews will install 10 of the systems at a time and expect to have all 161 completed by August 2025.
You'll find them along I-40 from Little Rock heading east towards Memphis.