State transportation officials will use a $5 million federal grant to hopefully reduce wrong-way crashes on interstates near Kentucky’s two largest cities. The state will match it with another $5 million. Jason Siwula is deputy state highway engineer. Siwula said the money will go to support Kentucky’s Wrong Way Driving and Integrated Safety Technology System. He said it will use computing and video processing to implement the pilot program.
“When we look at the detection system, we’ll actually be utilizing some camera technology in order to ascertain vehicles that are traveling in the wrong direction,” said Siwula.
In addition to detecting drivers traveling down exit ramps on roadways the wrong way, the federally funded program seeks to deter those drivers while also alerting travelers going the correct way.
From 2015 to 2020, there were 88 wrong-way crashes in Kentucky that resulted in 16 fatalities and 27 serious injuries.
