The right approach to a wrong-way driver

A wrong-way driver almost managed to get herself and a man killed early Monday morning on Interstate 17 in Phoenix.

By the way, the man who was involved shouldn’t have been. He was merely driving north in the northbound HOV lane of I-17.

What a concept.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety says the latest wrong-way driver to plague our roads was impaired when she hopped on the freeway at Bell Road just after midnight Monday morning. She collided with the victim near Greenway Road.

Both are expected to live, but this scenario often ends in death. We’ve seen it over and over again on Valley freeways and it hits way too close to home for me, as I’ve driven this stretch of freeway about a thousand times — often with my family.

I know that the Arizona Department of Transportation has been working to find a way to stop idiots (usually blottoed out of their minds) who can’t figure out how to properly use a freeway. I appreciate their efforts.

And kudos to DPS trooper Justin Doucet, who managed to stop a wrong-way driver on the U.S. 60 near Mill Avenue back in October. Stopping that guy was a bit more involved than turning on his lights and siren, though. He had to hit the potential killer’s Dodge truck with his patrol vehicle.

The truth is, there is no complete solution for stopping these people. Arizona has added huge signs that seem to scream “WRONG WAY!” facing the direction of someone who is using an off-ramp as an on-ramp.

But people are going to continue to drive south where they should go north and east when the lanes are designated for traveling west. And people are going to continue to suffer injuries that result in lost time at work, loss of property and often the loss of their very life.

It’s why we (you and me) have to play a part. By that I don’t mean that we should call 911 the instant we see a wrong-way driver (although we should). I mean that we should stop a wrong-way driver before he, or she, ever becomes one.

We hear it so often that it has faded into the background for most of us. But if you have a friend or a family member who has had too much to drink, take their damn keys.

If that doesn’t work, enlist other people to help convince them that they shouldn’t be driving. And if it comes to it, call the cops on them.

While some people may think it’s wrong to “rat” on your friends, that kind of thinking is wrong. And there’s something wrong with us if it takes a head-on collision with a car full of innocent people to stop a wrong-way driver.

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