Bill Takes Aim on Wrong-Way Drivers
- March 19, 2015
- Sandy
LOS ANGELES – Wrong-way drivers are a growing problem on American highways. On the Pacific Coast freeways, California Highway Patrol counted 1,500 wrong-way crashes since 2001 that resulted in almost 1,700 people being injured by wrong way driver s, and at least 270 more killed.
Assembly Bill 162, sponsored by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez (D – Ontario) demands countermeasures that can prevent drivers from entering freeways on the wrong side.
“Wrong-way drivers pose an extremely dangerous scenario in cities like Los Angeles,” car accident lawyer John Sheehan said. “Statistics show it’s the most dangerous accident on the roads today because of the speeds and the potential for a head-on collision.”
The California Assembly Bill, which is similar to bills that have passed legislatures in other states, would require the state’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to “update a 1989 report on wrong-way driving on state highways to account for technological advancements and innovation, to include a review of methods studied or implemented by other jurisdictions and entities to prevent wrong-way drivers from entering state highways, and to provide the report to specified legislative committees on or before January 1, 2017.”
“With all the technology at our fingertips today, there has to be a way to make roads safer,” Sheehan said.
The amended bill also requires Caltrans to identify ways to reduce the number of wrong-way drivers with new technologies or develop new techniques to avoid similar crashes.
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