ADOT camera captures the moment the wrong-way driver enters the highway before fatally crashing

PHOENIX — The Operation Safe Roads team has obtained video from ADOT showing the wrong-way driver following Thursday morning’s crash while entering Interstate 17 on the off ramp.

The driver drove southbound in the northbound lanes for approximately five miles before getting in fatal crash near Jefferson Street downtown.

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

This video is from ADOT thermal cameras, which were first installed in 2018 as a first-of-their-kind technology to warn the police about wrong-way drivers.

ADOT emphasizes that these cameras won’t stop people from going the wrong way, but they can alert police more quickly before motorists on the highway can call 911.

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

Since its installation, ADOT says they have detected hundreds of wrong-way drivers from their traffic center.

Over the past six years, the camera program has expanded to portions of every highway in the Valley, including on Interstate 10 at ADOT’s Broadway Curve Improvement Project.

Although the cameras can warn drivers more quickly, no technology can stop wrong-way drivers alone. ADOT has also invested in installing larger ghost signs in the valley.

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

Check out the media-reported incidents of wrong-way drivers on Valley highways this year alone: