CLEVELAND — In a video 3News obtained from the Ohio Department of Transportation, a wrong-way driver on Interstate 90 west can be seen hitting another car head-on. When it's replayed, the driver headed westbound (the correct way) is observed swerving in an attempt to avoid the oncoming vehicle, but to no avail.
"I'm being told that the female entrapped in the vehicle is going to be the wrong-way driver," police said over the scanner.
That wrong-way driver was in a white Chevrolet Impala. She and seven other people were injured, including three children.
One of those kids was just 5 years old, but he was not taken from the scene via ambulance. Rather, a Good Samaritan jumped in to help.
"The juvenile was dropped off [at the hospital] by a stranger," police said of the boy. "Just saw him on the highway and picked up the juvenile and brought him in."
And because ODOT has the video of the incident, it will certainly help to see why the driver went the wrong way. Nothing has been confirmed at this time.
"What we find, a lot of the time, is that the drivers are impaired either with drugs or alcohol that is causing them to go the wrong way on a[n] exit ramp that they're using as an entrance ramp," ODOT spokesman Brent Kovacs says.
But there is plan in place to try and prevent collisions like this.
"So what we've come up with is a wrong-way corridor," Kovacs explained. "This is going to be on I-90, I-71 to West 150th, East 140th."
25 locations will have detection systems. If someone goes the wrong way on a ramp, it will start flashing bright lights, and if the driver fails to see that, a video will be captured and sent to ODOT in Columbus, and they will alert local police of the potential danger.
This is being modeled off of system installed in Cincinnati, and Kovacs says it works.
"In Northeast Ohio, it's the first of its kind," he explained, adding it won't stop all impaired drivers but can hopefully reduce casualties. "Specifically, this is the most dangerous stretch for wrong-way drivers in Cuyahoga County."
The crash this past weekend left I-90 closed in and out of downtown Cleveland. ODOT's wrong-way detection system is expected to cost $2.3 million, with installation slated to begin in January.
