ADOT camera captures moment wrong-way driver enters highway before fatal crash occurs

PHOENIX – The Operation Safe Roads team received video from ADOT that shows the wrong-way driver from Thursday morning's crash driving on the exit ramp onto Interstate 17.

The driver traveled south in the northbound lanes for about five miles before getting into the fatal crash near Jefferson Street downtown.

2 dead in wrong-way crash on I-17 near Jefferson Street in Phoenix

This video is from ADOT thermal imaging cameras, first installed in 2018 as a unique technology to alert law enforcement to wrong-way drivers.

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ADOT stresses that these cameras can't stop people from driving the wrong way, but they can alert law enforcement more quickly – before motorists on the highway can start calling 911.

The first phase of the program began in 2018 with a 15-mile stretch from I-17 to Loop 101.

ADOT says it has recorded hundreds of wrong-way drivers from its traffic control center since installation.

Over the past six years, the camera program has expanded to portions of all highways in the valley, including Interstate 10 as part of ADOT's Broadway Curve Improvement Project.

While the cameras can help warn drivers sooner, no technology alone can stop wrong-way drivers. ADOT has also invested in installing larger wrong-way signs throughout the valley.

Police are still investigating why the driver was driving the wrong way on I-17. According to ADOT, most wrong-way accidents involve an impaired driver.

Check out the media-reported wrong-way driver incidents on Valley Freeways this year alone: